'Our life changed overnight and no-one saw it coming'

For the survivors and those left bereaved by the events of 14 June 2017, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry answers in detail the questions about what happened and why.

But for many of them, closure will only come with something a public inquiry cannot bring: justice for the 72 people who died.

Those affected have told BBC News that accountability must follow the inquiry's findings - that the fire was the result of a chain of failures by governments, "dishonest" companies and a lack of strategy by the fire service.

The Metropolitan Police says any criminal charges will not be brought for at least another 12-18 months.

"You were supposed to protect us; you were supposed to let us live in our homes safely; you took that away from us."

This is Yousra Cherbika's message to those responsible for the fire and its aftermath, as detailed in Sir Martin Moore-Bick's report.

She was 12 years old when the fire happened and says she splits her life into the “happier times before” and what followed.

“Our life changed overnight and no-one saw it coming,” the 19-year-old told BBC Radio London.

She lived in Grenfell Walk, directly in the shadow of the tower, and was permanently evacuated as a result of the fire.

Ms Cherbika said she alerted her friend, Nur Huda el-Wahabi, to the fire, as Nur and her family were asleep when it broke out.

"When it started reaching her floor, that's when I started to worry," she said.

On the phone, Nur said she would evacuate her family and told Ms Cherbika: "See you later."

"I never spoke to her again after that," Ms Cherbika added. Nur's parents and two brothers also died in the blaze.

"You don't think that people who are meant to protect you would let something like that happen," she said.

Of the 72 people who died in the tower, 18 were children.

“People in my class were still on the register but they had passed,” Ms Cherbika told BBC London.

The family of Khadija Khalloufi, who was 52 when she died at Grenfell, were not surprised by what the final report revealed.

After seven years, it's justice they are after.

"When you hear that everything was avoidable and because of their dishonesty, you have anger inside you," her brother Karim told BBC News.

"What are they waiting for, to make charges, to make criminal prosecutions, manslaughter? So why are we going to wait more years, three or four or five years to have this justice?"

He said the family would not be able to move on until that happened.

"If we don't have this justice we will speak all the time about Grenfell," Mr Khalloufi added. "We want to speak about her as a good memory but we speak all the time about how Khadijah was burnt, how she died in those circumstances."

Emma O’Connor, who was on the 20th floor and escaped the fire, said she was glad the inquiry chair Sir Martin had laid the blame “where it’s supposed to be”.

She said that while she was glad to get answers, "the real fight continues" to win justice for the 72 people who died.

Describing the mood in the room as the former High Court judge delivered the inquiry's findings, she said: “It was quiet, as usual, as it’s a court setting, but there was also a lot of silent tears. You just want to grab some of your neighbours and tell them, ‘it’s going to be all right’.”

Ms O’Connor said she was not surprised the inquiry took so long to reach a conclusion, given the “disgusting amount of time” it took for the Hillsborough families to get the truth.

Despite the failings detailed, she said the London Fire Brigade was the only organisation to come out of the inquiry with any credibility after implementing recommendations from the inquiry's first phase.

Ms O'Connor also thanked the inquiry panel for the work it had done.

Former Grenfell Tower resident Ed Daffarn said there wasn't much in the inquiry's final report that he and other survivors did not already know.

“There was no Poirot moment. We knew in the days and weeks standing under the burning carcass of Grenfell that we were the victims of a system that put profit before people and treated people in social housing as sub-human,” he says.

He adds that the Grenfell development, the fire and response is defined by “incompetence, dishonesty and greed”.

Now that the granular detail of what happened has been revealed, Mr Daffarn is calling on the Home Office to make funding available to the Met Police to accelerate the criminal investigation.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met Stuart Cundy said: “Our police investigation is independent of the public inquiry. It operates under a different legal framework and so we cannot simply use the report’s findings as evidence to bring charges."

He added that in order to "secure justice for those who died and all those affected by the fire" a thorough investigation was needed, which would take "at least 12-18 months".

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