Sixty-seven children lived in Grenfell Tower when the west London block caught fire in June 2017. Eighteen of them never got a chance to grow up.
For many of the others, the traumatic loss, anxiety and PTSD that followed the disaster has shaped their childhoods and young adult lives.
They lost friends, family and everything they owned; spent months or years in hotels; and missed valuable school time.
In the seven years since the tragedy, more than 1,000 children and young people have been treated for mental health issues, according to the NHS Health and Wellbeing Hub, set up in the wake of Grenfell.
They were traumatised by what they saw or heard from friends and family, by having to cope with the loss of a friend or a neighbour, their natural sense of safety shattered on the night of the fire.
New referrals still come in each month.
This week, the Grenfell Inquiry releases its final report into the fire that cost 72 lives.
Sky News has spoken to some of the children who survived the tragedy. These are their stories.
Luana, 19: ‘I feel guilty that I’m here living’
Luana Gomes was 12 at the time of the fire. She managed to escape, with her sister and her pregnant mother, but they were in a coma for weeks. Her baby brother, Logan, was stillborn – the youngest victim of the disaster.
Now 19 and standing at the base of the tower, Luana can’t help but smile at some of the memories.
Pointing to where their flat was on the 21st floor, she recalls looking out the window and calling out to her friends in the park below.
“Every time my friends were down there I’d shout their names. I don’t think they could hear me,” she says, laughing.
She recalls how her friend Mehdi would knock on her door and be scared of her dog: “She was so tiny and sweet but he was terrified of her, which was funny.”
Eventually Mehdi won over his fear of the dog. He died in the fire along with his sister, brother and parents. He was eight.
Image: Luana as a little girl
Luana pauses, takes a deep breath and says: “I feel a bit guilty.
“When you think about your friends and family members and neighbours – I feel guilty that I’m here living and doing all this stuff, and they didn’t get the chance to live and do the stuff they wanted to at such a young age.”
The last seven years have been difficult. She has suffered from anxiety and depression. She missed weeks of school by being in hospital, and remembers being painfully behind when she went back to the classroom.
But she has found solace in dance. This month she goes to university to study it. It’s a cliche, she says, but “dance allows me to express my feelings in a way I can’t say in words”.
Image: Since surviving the fire, Luana has found solace in dance
She doesn’t want to speak about the little brother she lost, but shows us a message to him written years ago on the memorial wall.
The message says: “Logan. I love and miss you so, so, so much and know that your big sister is always thinking of you. RIEP Brother.”
Abem, 12: ‘It could have been me’
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‘I realised the burning building was my own home’
Abem Abraham’s memory of his first home is hazy, but he remembers watching the tower burn, and he remembers the best friend he lost.
As the fire raged, four-year-old Abem was taken down the smoke-filled stairs by his parents – then to a friend who lived nearby. He was safe.
But before falling asleep that night, he looked out of the curtains.
“I see a tall building block engulfed in flames. I don’t know what it was,” he recalls all these years later.
“And then later I realised that it was my own home.”
Image: Seven years after the Grenfell tragedy, Abem called on politicians to remove ‘deadly’ cladding
The cruellest part of the tragedy was losing his best friend, five-year-old Isaac Paulos.
“He was my best friend from my school at the time,” he says. “He was a bit older than me, like a brother. Like a big brother.”
Abem is a kind, smart and energetic boy who loves Formula One, basketball and football. He plays a Manchester United song on the piano, and proudly shows me his new PlayStation 5 – a present from his uncle for having done well at school.
Image: Abem with his friend Isaac, who was killed in the blaze
But this 12-year-old also has a message for the politicians and developers.
“They need to remove the cladding off of every UK building because that cladding is deadly. When it comes to fire, it can destroy houses within minutes, within hours, like it did to Grenfell. Everyone, please, please remove it.”
He wants the children who died to be remembered for their “bright dreams”.
“One of them wanted to be a footballer, wanted to be an engineer, wanted to be an architect. All gone in one flame,” he says.
“It could have been me.”
Ines, 23: ‘I was known as Grenfell girl’
Image: Ines sat her chemistry GCSE exam a day after the blaze. Pic: Lauren Hurley/PA
As her family ran from the burning building soon after the fire started, 16-year-old Ines Alves grabbed her textbooks.
The next morning, with her home a smouldering ruin, she sat her chemistry GCSE exam.
In the days after the tragedy that destroyed her home, Ines became known as “Grenfell girl”. She has spent much of the past years trying to escape that title.
Initially, she was a viral inspiration. In the months that followed the tragedy, she gave interviews about the disaster and updates on her grades and results to eager journalists.
Image: Ines became known as ‘Grenfell girl’, a title she wishes to escape
But it was the following year’s AS-level exams that triggered a mental health crisis.
“My biggest trauma was watching the building burning and people screaming, as I was revising for my GCSEs,” she says.
“So just revising and concentrating generally just kind of led me to dark places after that.
“When June came around it just kind of all came rushing back. And I had probably the biggest mental breakdown. It was just a horrible time.”
Image: Pic: Lauren Hurley/PA
She ended up retaking the academic year. It was difficult seeing her friends go off to university without her – but she eventually found her own path.
For Ines, Grenfell is a story in her past, one she doesn’t want to define her future.
At university, she craved anonymity. One of her best friends didn’t realise it was her for over a year. “She just said to me, ‘that was you! What the hell?!'”
Now she’s graduated from Leeds with a degree in maths and has been travelling the world – Australia, Thailand and other parts of Asia.
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“Trying to live life like a normal young adult,” she says.
“I kind of don’t really like to live life by knowing what I’m going to do in a month’s time.”
Yousra, 19: ‘They’re not just numbers’
Image: Yousra lived on Grenfell Walk, at the base of the tower
Yousra Cherbika is angry. She’s angry about the fire, the friends she lost, the home she can never return to – and the way she feels other children and young people were treated after the disaster.
She was 12 years old when she watched the tower burn, desperately calling her friend Nur Huda who lived inside to “get out”. But she couldn’t, and her whole family perished.
“They’re not just numbers. They’re not just ‘part of 72’,” she says.
“They have names, we love them. They had stories to tell. They had full lives which were cut short.”
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Grenfell Tower lit up for anniversary
Yousra and her family lived on Grenfell Walk, at the base of the tower. Less is known about those residents who managed to escape, but they also lost everything in the disaster.
“There’s parts of my childhood that I just block out and I don’t remember, like the year after the fire,” she says.
“I don’t remember living in a hotel. We were in one room, five of us, and my mum was pregnant.
“I had no home to go back to, no school to go back to. And even when we did go back to school, it was different, because there were empty chairs in our classrooms.”
Image: Green ribbon hangs from a lampost near the tower
She feels as though their support as ‘Walk’ residents was much worse.
“We didn’t know what we were entitled to at first, and so many people turned us away.”
Image: Yousra wants to be a teacher
Today Yousra is a campaigner, a leader among local young people, volunteering in her spare time.
She is also training to be a primary school teacher, inspired by the form tutor who helped her through her lowest, darkest points in secondary school.
“I just stayed in bed and I just didn’t go into school. But she encouraged me. She motivated me.”
She feels outraged that seven years on, there is still cladding on buildings across the country.
“Why does it take 72 people to die for them to even think, oh, ‘maybe we should take cladding that might kill people?’
“And still, they haven’t done that.”
Watch Sky News’ special programme on Grenfell tonight at 8pm.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after three children and a woman died in a house fire in Brent, northwest London.
Metropolitan Police officers are investigating after being called to assist firefighters in Stonebridge, near Wembley, shortly after 1.20am.
A 43-year-old woman and three children, a 15-year-old girl, an eight-year-old boy and a four-year-old boy, died at the scene, the force said. Their next of kin have been informed.
Police are waiting for an update on the conditions of two others who were taken to hospital.
A 41-year-old man was arrested at the scene in connection with the incident and remains in custody.
Image: Pics: PA
Eight fire engines and around 60 firefighters responded to the blaze, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said.
Two terrace houses, each with three floors, were severely damaged in the fire, which was under control by around 3.25am, the fire service added.
Firefighters rescued the woman and one of the children from the second floor of the house, but they were declared dead by air ambulance crews.
The two other children were found inside the property and were also declared dead at the scene, LFB said.
Image: Emergency services at the scene. Pics: PA
LFB assistant commissioner Keeley Foster said: “Upon arrival, firefighters were met with a well-developed fire, involving two adjoining properties. Crews immediately set to work carrying out firefighting operations in order to bring the incident under control.
“Sadly, a woman and three children have died as a result of this fire.
“Crews wearing breathing apparatus were able to rescue the woman and one of the children from the second floor, but they were later declared deceased at the scene.
“A further two children were discovered to have died in the fire, as crews carried out a search of the properties involved.”
She added: “This is an extremely tragic incident, and the thoughts of everyone across the brigade are with those impacted by this incident.”
Image: Pic: PA
London Ambulance Service said an air ambulance, incident response officers, advanced paramedic and hazardous area response team were deployed to the scene.
Superintendent Steve Allen, from the Met’s local policing team in northwest London, said: “This is an extremely tragic incident and our thoughts are with everyone involved.
“Officers arrested a man at the scene and we continue to work alongside investigators from the London Fire Brigade to establish the cause of the fire.
“Emergency services will remain in Tillett Close throughout the day as these enquiries take place.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said in a post on X: “This is devastating news and my thoughts are with the family, friends and wider community of the four people who sadly have lost their lives.
“I remain in close contact with the London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police as they work to establish the cause of the fire and offer support to all those impacted.”
Dawn Butler, the local Labour MP for Brent East, posted: “Devastated to see the fatal fire at homes in Tillett Close last night.
“My prayers are with the family and friends affected by this is a very sad tragedy.
“@LFB_Brent worked hard to get it under control, thank you.”
The teacher of one of the Southport stabbing victims has told Sky News they “don’t want her to be forgotten”, 10 months after the knife attack in which she was murdered.
Seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe was killed along with Bebe King, six, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar in an attack by Axel Rudakubana at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July.
Jennifer Sephton, headteacher of Farnborough Road Infant School, will be skydiving to raise funds for the Elsie’s Story charitable trust, which has been set up in memory of the former pupil.
Image: (L-R) Alice da Silva Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King were killed in an attack at a Taylor Swift-themed class
“She’d been with us for four years, throughout her education,” Ms Sephton told Sky News, “and we just want everybody to know Elsie’s spirit.”
Describing Elsie as “such a determined young lady,” Ms Sephton said Elsie had “a real zest for life, and a sparkle in her eye all the time.”
She added that Elsie’s Story, which has been set up by Elsie’s family, is about “continuing that legacy.”
Image: Jennifer Sephton
In the aftermath of the July 2024 attack, the gates outside Elsie’s school were lined with flowers, balloons, and cards bearing her name.
Since then, memorial benches and a tree have been planted in the school grounds, providing pupils and staff with a place to “remember and reflect”, Ms Sefton says.
“[Elsie’s death] had such an impact on all our community,” the teacher said, “it’s had an impact on her friends, their siblings, our school as a community and our staff.”
Ms Sephton will be joined in the skydive by Adrian Antell, headteacher at the adjoining junior school where Elsie had been due to start.
“Elsie was due to come to us last September,” he told Sky News, “but what we’ve learned about her is that she had a wonderful impact in the infant school, and we don’t want her to be forgotten.
“We want her name to have to live on and to be thought of in a positive way.”
Mr Antell said they continue to support Elsie’s classmates, who joined the new school without her.
“There’s no instruction manual for this,” he explained, “every day is different, and every day is one step at a time.
“So all we can do as a school is to think about individual children and support them in the best way we can.”
Scientists from Kew Gardens are using a new study to track which trees bees prefer to try to stem the decline in our vital pollinators.
Bee populations are falling all over the world due to a mixture of habitat loss, climate change, and the use of pesticides, with a devastating impact on our biodiversity and food production.
But it’s feared that not enough comprehensive, global research is being done to understand the issue or find solutions.
Image: The study is building up heat maps of the most popular trees
Image: Non-invasive monitors track the buzz created by bees’ wing beats
UK becoming a no-fly zone
Researchers based at Wakehurst in Sussex, known as Kew’s “Wild Botanic Garden”, have begun placing advanced bio-acoustics sensors in some of their trees to track which ones bees favour.
They hope it’ll help urban planners know which trees to plant in built-up areas, as a way of combating the worrying decline in bee numbers.
Pollination research lead Dr Janine Griffiths-Lee said: “Nearly 90% of our flowering plants depend on the contribution of pollinators, but in the UK the population of flying insects in the last 20 years has decreased by around 60%.
“It’s really hard to be able to put a figure on the decline of our pollinators, but we do know that globally the number is declining.
“And with that comes crop yield instability and the loss of an essential ecosystem service.”
Their new, non-invasive monitors listen for the buzz created by bees’ wing beats, building up heat maps of the most popular spots.
Image: Bio-acoustics sensors are placed in trees to track which ones the bees are more drawn to
‘We’re facing twin crises’
Dr Griffiths-Lee said: “If you think about the tree’s footprint, it’s very small, but they’re huge 3D structures covered in pollen and nectar, which are essential resources of pollinators.
“So we really wanted to think about which are the best trees for bees for us to plant, and that can inform landscape planners, urban architects.”
Eight different species of tree were chosen for the study, including horse chestnut and lime trees, with a mixture of native and non-native species.
The scientists have also been gathering DNA from pollen, which also helps them to map which plants and flowers the insects prefer.
Wakehurst’s director, Susan Raikes, calls the 535-acre estate a “living laboratory”, and said the project’s all about searching for nature-based solutions to the impacts of climate change.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher, really. We know that we’re facing these twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change,” she added.
“We need to be able to understand, as the climate changes, which plants from warmer climes will be good here in the UK for pollinators in the future.
“If all of our native plants are struggling, then we need to find new sources of pollen – for us all to survive.”