Man who made chilling warning about Grenfell Tower fire risk last year was seconds away from death in blaze
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A campaigner who warned officials about fire risks at Grenfell Tower saw his own devastating prediction come true - and was seconds away from death.
Edward Daffarn, 55, was on the sixteenth floor of the 24-storey block of flats when fire ripped through the building last night and confessed at first he thought someone was just burning some toast due to the lack of fire alarms.
Daffarn is part of a campaign group who repeatedly published blogs about their concerns over health and safety risks in the tower block in Kensington, West London.
Today these blogs are being shared widely to show that residents' concerns were not addressed.
In November last year, he wrote: "It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders."
Last night, a deadly fire blazed through the building rapidly. Twelve people have been confirmed dead and more than 70 have been treated for injuries in hospital.
Daffarn had a lucky escape and revealed he was seconds away from death, had it not been for the actions of a hero firefighter.
He told BuzzFeed News how he had no idea anything was going on as there was no fire alarm. He heard his neighbour's smoke alarm at about 1am and assumed they were making toast.
Even when neighbours in the hallway shouted "Fire! Fire!" he thought it was a "bit much" for some burnt toast.
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Daffarn opened his door and realised what was happening when a "huge lot of smoke" flooded into his flat.
Having been advised to stay inside, he went back into the flat and shut the door.
"About 10 seconds later my friend rang me and said: 'You need to get out of the flat.' He was so urgent I decided I had to leave," he told BuzzFeed.
Scared, he wet a towel in the bathroom and tied it around his face.
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"I went across the landing to the fire exit but the smoke was so, so strong that I couldn't see anything. Where I thought the door was it wasn't," he said.
"I had a matter of seconds or I was going to die. This fireman came, he was lying on the ground and opened the fire exit. He touched my leg and that was enough. That enabled me to get out."
Daffarn was five floors below floor 21. It is reported that nobody escaped the blaze above these floors.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated, although some experts have pointed out that new cladding added to the building in a recent refurbishment could have helped the fire spread rapidly.