Grenfell

The stories of three people directly affected by the devastating Grenfell Tower Fire, which shook the world on June 14, 2017

Two years on from the Grenfell Tower Fire, which killed 72 people, and injured 70 more, the community is still fighting for justice. At the time of writing, nearly 100 households remain in temporary accommodation, and heightened levels of cancer-causing chemicals threaten the health of locals even further. These are the stories of the heroes, survivors and activists whose lives were indelibly marked by that fateful day

Helena Thompson is the founder and artistic director of SPID Theatre, who have been based on the Kensal House Estate close to Grenfell in North Kensington since 2005. The work of this small charity is now helping to give the traumatised community hope

“I was out of the country when [the fire] happened. I watched the news on TV and received lots of messages on my phone. Seeing something of this scale on the screen moves you, in the same way that seeing a well-honed drama moves you, except much more because this was real. I felt the horror of it profoundly. I also felt, knowing the area and the concerns of its residents as I do, that it was inevitable. Kensal always has floods, Grenfell and Trellick towers always had fires. It was just a matter of time before a major catastrophe hit one of them. Social housing tenants call for better safety and maintenance but no one listens. You feel disempowered and less important than the many wealthy people who live in the borough.

We knew it was coming, but no one could have envisaged the sheer scale of it. Everyone was just numb with shock. I know what PTSD looks like—social housing tenants have hard lives—and there was a lot more of that after the fire. The atmosphere afterwards, however, was one of extreme dignity and love—the real sadness came later, when the shock had subsided. Survivors used our theatre building for all the things they would normally do: childrens’ after-school clubs, birthday parties and residents’ meetings.