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Grenfell Tower victim staying in temporary accommodation 'forced to use hot water from the toilet'

Grenfell Tower resident Mahad Egal has not been given permanent accommodation (BBC/PA Images)
Grenfell Tower resident Mahad Egal has not been given permanent accommodation (BBC/PA Images)

A resident of Grenfell Tower who lost his home in the devastating blaze has described how he and his family have been forced to live in a cramped single bedroom in a hotel.

Mahad Egal, a father of two children aged one and three, called the conditions ‘cramped and claustrophobic’.

He told the Victoria Derbyshire programme: ‘If we want hot water we have to get it from the toilet. We’re deteriorating. We’re mentally and physically deteriorating.’

The family lived on the fourth floor of Grenfell Tower, and were offered the temporary accommodation in a hotel after losing their home.

MORE: Housing minister Alok Sharma refuses to say how many Grenfell Tower victims are still missing in car-crash interview
MORE: Labour MP David Lammy denies saying there is a Grenfell death toll cover-up

Mahad said the council had not offered any suitable housing.

Mahad Egal is staying in a single hotel room with his wife and two children (BBC)
Mahad Egal is staying in a single hotel room with his wife and two children (BBC)

‘We’re moving from place to place from house to house, with family members and friends, wherever we can find really.

‘We’re causing a disturbance wherever we go because we aren’t settled, and the kids are making noise and the neighbours are not used to it, so these are the kinds of things that area affecting where we go,’ he said.

‘They [the council] have offered us high-rise towers and I’ve expressed that we’re petrified and traumatised so are the kids.

‘My oldest boy is aware of the situation. Whenever he sees the building he’s aware of what happened and knows his home is no longer there.’

Smoke pours from the Grenfell Tower (PA Images)
Smoke pours from the Grenfell Tower (PA Images)

Asked about the council’s response to the catastrophe, Mahad said: ‘They have not helped. They have been insensitive to the situation.

‘They have not provided answers. They have not provided anyone I know any form of suitable accommodation. Theres nothing to say. We’re still out here displaced.’

Yahoo News has contacted Kensington and Chelsea council for comment.

Housing minister Alok Sharma said on the Victoria Derbyshire show that all residents would be rehoused in ‘good but temporary’ accommodation by next Wednesday.

He earlier this week refused to say how many Grenfell Tower residents have been rehoused so far.

Refusing to give a definitive number, Mr Sharma said: ‘We are in the process of talking to the families who were affected by Grenfell tower and Grenfell walk and what were also doing is makings sure that each of those families has an assessment for their housing needs.

‘There are a couple of hundred households who have been affected.’

Theresa May yesterday called for a ‘major national inquiry’ into the Grenfell fire, and the wider use of flammable cladding on high-rise buildings across the country.

It came as samples of cladding from 95 buildings all failed safety tests introduced since the blaze. So far every sample tested has failed.

A Number 10 spokesperson said: ‘The Prime Minister said there would need to be a major national investigation into what had gone wrong when cladding which is failing the tests had been fitted on buildings across the country over a number of decades.’