"OUR daughter Michelle is going to Heaven," a Nigerian woman told her husband in a frantic telephone call that was to be her last words, before she and her three-week old baby perished in an inferno started by a faulty television set on July 3, 2009. The fire claimed six lives at Lakanal House, a 14-storey tower block in Camberwell, South London.
Revealing this in a statement read to the ongoing inquest at Lambeth Town Hall on Tuesday, Mbet Udoaka told the inquest that when his 34-year old wife, Helen Udoaka, rang him at work on that fateful day: "The last words she said to me were that the smoke was too much," and that she "couldn't bear it any more. Michelle our daughter is going to heaven."
Mr. Udoaka added: "I could hear the cries and then the line went silent." Udoaka admitted to the inquest, "My life will never be the same again. I can never get over these deaths."
On Monday, counsel to the inquest, James Maxwell-Scott also disclosed to the inquest that prior to what was to be her final exchange with her husband, Helen had called the emergency services on 999 and was told to use a towel to stop the smoke coming in. Adding, Maxwell-Scott told the inquest what Ms Udoaka said to the emergency services. "She said she and her baby were trapped and there was "so much smoke."
It would be recalled that when The Guardian reported the tragedy at the time, Mr. Udoaka was at a relative's house near his former house and was too distraught to speak with this reporter.
Other victims of the inferno were 31-year old fashion designer, Catherine Hickman, 26-year old Dayana Francisquini, a Brazilian mother of two, who died alongside her two children, Filipe,3, and six-year old daughter, Thais.
Giving his emotional testimony at the inquest, Francisquini's husband, Rafael Cervi, who was also at work when his wife called to inform him that she and their two children were trapped in the inferno, said: "Everything I dreamed of was over in the same three hours."
Cervi recalled that after his last conversation with his wife at 5.24 p.m. on that day, he made further calls as he raced home in a taxi, but none was answered. He was then driven to King's College Hospital and after identifying his son's body, he expected his wife to be alive. But "in an hour I found out my wife was dead. Then I was expecting my daughter to be alive - at least one of them. But I couldn't find them."
The inquest, which continues till March, is expected to cost about £2 million.
