2018-10-01_Reader_s_Digest_AUNZ

October• 2018 | 117

READER’S DIGEST

could. He looked out his bedroom

window. The apartment was 14 sto-

reys up. He’d collected 14 bedsheets.

Talabi ran to the kitchen to try to

get eyes on the fire. Bands of flame

were torquing around Grenfell Tower

like a wrung cloth. He could see in-

explicable and contradictory things.

Smoke from below. Fire from above.

Fire falling from above, making atsk-

tsk-tsksound as great glowing slices

of something peeled away from

Grenfell’s stricken upper floors and

dropped past his kitchen window.

Thecouplewentbackinsidetheir

bedroom, where they paced and

called the emergency services and

tried to think. Some neighbours

joined them in the apartment,

driven out of their own homes by

thesmoke.Twowerebrothers,men

intheir20sfromSyria.Oneofthem

noticedthatTalabihadbeentying

bedsheets together and he asked

why. Talabi replied: “Bro... ”

Thefirenearedtheircornerofthe

building.Talabifastenedtheend

ofhisknottedbedsheetsinsidethe

bedroom, fed the remainder out the

open window, and then climbed out

after it. As he hung on the outside

of Grenfell Tower, his fingers curled

around the frame of his bedroom

window. He told Rosemary to pass

outtheirdaughter.Buttheirdaugh-

ter, crying and struggling, would

not let herself be sent through.

She pushed herself away from the

window frame and Talabi, in this

in England requiring sprinklers in
buildingstallerthan30metresap-
pliesonlytonewbuildings.)Abuild-
ingnewsletterhadoncedescribed
emergencypolicyintheeventofa
fire:“Ourlongstanding‘stayput’
policystaysinforce,”thenewsletter
advised. “This is because Grenfell
wasdesignedaccordingtorigorous
fire safety standards.”
As advice, ‘stay put’ does make
somelogicalsense,atleastina
concrete high-rise. The thinking,
endorsed by the fire brigade, is that
by remaining where they are for as
longasafireisoutofsight,residents
won’tfleefromanareaofrelative
safetyintooneofthreat.Ofcourse,
this thinking means nothing if fire is
abletospreadupthesideofabuild-
ing, away from its concrete core.
Talabiwasrousedasecondtime,
andnowhecouldmakeoutwhat
wasbeingshoutedfromthebaseof
thetower:“Fire,fire!”
HeshookRosemaryawakeand
snatched on clothes while she put on
arobe.Hewouldnotbestayingput.
Instead, he picked up his daughter,
clasped hands with Rosemary and
ran them all to the front door. They
openeditandweremetbyawall
of dense, rank smoke. It tasted of
chemicals, and Talabi didn’t think
they’d last more than a few gasps of
it. So he pulled everyone back inside.
They gummed wet towels around
the edges of the front door. Then
Talabi gathered all the bedsheets he