122 | October• 2018
TOWERING INFERNO
front doors, no windows, all the
plaster was down, even the stud
wallshadgone.Youmightmake
outamattress,onlybecauseofthe
springs. Some of the porcelain,
like a toilet seat, survived. There
wasnothingelse,onlytheconcrete
walls.”
Therescuercontinued:“Youcould
tell that some of the deceased were
still in those homes because of the
patterns under the rubble. Flat, f lat,
flatandthen...”Hegesturedwithhis
hand, drawing a level line, then de-
scribedacurve.“Likeahump.Un-
der the dust.”
OntheeveningofJune16,two
days after the fire, there was a vigil
besidethetower.Peopleheldcan-
dles and stood in circles around the
bereaved. David Badillo made his
waythere,invitedbyhisfriends,the
Ruizbrothers.Hewouldbemeeting
Jessica’swiderfamilyforthefirst
time. Badillo had no idea how the
girl’s family would react to him. He
knew he had tried his best to save
her.Butasanotherfirefighterex-
plained, “You know the firefighters
triedtheirbest.Butyoustillhadto
leavepeopleinthatbuilding.You’re
a firefighter who left. You got out.”
Atthevigil,Jessica’sfamilyheld
Badillotightandbarelyletgo.He
wept, and told them he was sorry.
Asthedaysandweekswenton,
survivorsdischargedfromthe
hospital went to live in hotels. So-
cial-housing tenants had beenRemains and Recovery
As close as a police cordon per-
mitted,aperimeterringoftributes
grewuparoundthetower.Pinnedto
garden fences, piled against church
wallsandstucktosteelbarricades
werephotosandmessages.Thegirl
who lived on the 20th floor – her full
name was Jessica Urbano Ramirez
–wasamongthosevictimswhose
identification would take many
weeks. Right after the fire, and in
theabsenceofknowingforsure,
postersofherweredistributedso
urgently around the neighbourhood
thatJessica’sfacebecameawrench-
ingsymbolofexactlywhatthenight
had cost.
It took until November before in-
vestigatorscouldprovideatollofthe
dead: 71 people (later revised to 72).
Or perhaps more.
The last visible human remains
hadbeenremovedfromthetower
byearlyJuly,theworkafterthatcon-
tinuingwithfingertips,withsieves,
with archaeologists. The Grenfell
fire,atitspeak,burnedat980°C.
Whatwaslefttorecoveryworkers
were tonnes of ash.
Therewasapossibilitythatnotall
thoselivinginthetoweronJune14
were documented tenants. If there
were undocumented visitors, espe-
cially if they were in the upper sto-
reys, they might have died with no
oneleftknowingwhotheywere.
Onerecoveryworkersaidthataf-
ter the fire the apartments had “no