Grenfell Tower survivor gives harrowing description of how he sees dead people when he tries to go to sleep

A survivor of the Grenfell Tower fire has opened up on the devastating mental toll of the tragedy, and revealed that he sees dead people in his sleep every night.

Olawaseun Talabi escaped the devastating blaze after fleeing the flat he shared with his daughter and partner on the 14th floor of the doomed Kensington housing block.

Describing his escape, he recalled: ‘I thought I wouldn’t make it out alive. My daughter was behind me, she’s all choking. I’m choking, my partner is falling down the stairs. I’m trying to hold her hands while we’re trying to go through the stairs.

‘I swear to you I’m not exaggerating, at the tenth floor I already gave up.’

His recollection of the tragic fire came during an interview with the Victoria Derbyshire Show on BBC – which also saw him returning to the burnt out building for the first time – likening it to the devastation of war-torn Syria.

But he also bravely opened up on the mental toll of the fire – and admitted that he needs ‘help’ after the horrific ordeal.

‘I think I need help. How would you feel if you were sleeping in your bed and all you could see was dead people’, he said.

‘I want to go back to uni, I want to do my master’s in construction management. I think that time away would give me time to recover.

Earlier today, Theresa May admitted that 120 tower blocks have failed fire safety tests in the aftermath of the devastating Grenfell Tower blaze.

MORE: Grenfell Tower victim staying in temporary accommodation ‘forced to use hot water from the toilet’
MORE: Family pay tribute to ‘kind and generous’ five-year-old victim of Grenfell disaster

As she addressed the House of Commons, the Prime Minister also reaffirmed that the cladding used on the Kensington tower block did not comply with building regulations.

She revealed that failed safety tests had taken place in 37 local authorities across England – with all of the cladding samples found to be combustible.