The el-Wahabi family was decimated by the Grenfell tower fire, which broke out shortly after midnight on June 14, 2017, in the North Kensington area of west London. Grenfell was a residential high-rise occupied occupied by hundreds of people, many of them immigrants. During the last decade, building maintenance had remodeled the building, but failed to take adequate fireproofing measures. This negligence would cost the residents of Grenfell tower their lives.
Abdulaziz, age 52, lived with his wife Faouzia, age 41, and their three children Yasin, 20, Nur Huda, 16, and Medhi, 8, in an apartment on the 21nd floor of Grenfell tower. When fire broke out, they had nowhere to go, and no way to escape. Son Yasin, arriving home from work, saw the tower in flames, and raced back into the building to save his family. He was unable to do anything. The entire family perished in the blaze.
"Just eight when he died and about to finish year three at Oxford Gardens primary school, within sight of his home in Grenfell Tower, the headteacher, Sarah Cooper, remembers Mehdi El Wahabi coming in dressed up as a caveman. "He had a wonderful sense of humour but was also very, very gentle. He would involve and reassure everybody," she says.
Mehdi was the doted-on youngest child of his parents, Abdulaziz and Faouzia El Wahabi, and in the words of his aunt Hanan Wahabi, "definitely the baby of the family".
She added: "Because he was the youngest he was cared for a lot, bless him. He wasn't spoiled in the sense that he would get anything he wanted but they all mothered him." In photographs he invariably wears a broad smile.
The landing outside his family's 21st-floor flat was used as a play area by Mehdi, his nine-year-old cousin Sara Chebiouni, who lived several floors down, and the daughter of a neighbour. Inside the flat Mehdi enjoyed playing Minecraft and with Lego. He had small toys including Minions, Furbies and fidget spinners "arranged all over his desk so there was no more space, he was like a collector", remembers Sara.
He liked ice-cream and curry, and kept a squishy red, white and blue rocket toy on his bed. Had he lived to adulthood, Sara says, he would have liked to be a comedian – though she says he had some work to do on his jokes."
source:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2018/may/14/lives-of-grenfell-tower-victims-fire
Abdulaziz, age 52, lived with his wife Faouzia, age 41, and their three children Yasin, 20, Nur Huda, 16, and Medhi, 8, in an apartment on the 21nd floor of Grenfell tower. When fire broke out, they had nowhere to go, and no way to escape. Son Yasin, arriving home from work, saw the tower in flames, and raced back into the building to save his family. He was unable to do anything. The entire family perished in the blaze.
"Just eight when he died and about to finish year three at Oxford Gardens primary school, within sight of his home in Grenfell Tower, the headteacher, Sarah Cooper, remembers Mehdi El Wahabi coming in dressed up as a caveman. "He had a wonderful sense of humour but was also very, very gentle. He would involve and reassure everybody," she says.
Mehdi was the doted-on youngest child of his parents, Abdulaziz and Faouzia El Wahabi, and in the words of his aunt Hanan Wahabi, "definitely the baby of the family".
She added: "Because he was the youngest he was cared for a lot, bless him. He wasn't spoiled in the sense that he would get anything he wanted but they all mothered him." In photographs he invariably wears a broad smile.
The landing outside his family's 21st-floor flat was used as a play area by Mehdi, his nine-year-old cousin Sara Chebiouni, who lived several floors down, and the daughter of a neighbour. Inside the flat Mehdi enjoyed playing Minecraft and with Lego. He had small toys including Minions, Furbies and fidget spinners "arranged all over his desk so there was no more space, he was like a collector", remembers Sara.
He liked ice-cream and curry, and kept a squishy red, white and blue rocket toy on his bed. Had he lived to adulthood, Sara says, he would have liked to be a comedian – though she says he had some work to do on his jokes."
source:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2018/may/14/lives-of-grenfell-tower-victims-fire
The el-Wahabi family was decimated by the Grenfell tower fire, which broke out shortly after midnight on June 14, 2017, in the North Kensington area of west London. Grenfell was a residential high-rise occupied occupied by hundreds of people, many of them immigrants. During the last decade, building maintenance had remodeled the building, but failed to take adequate fireproofing measures. This negligence would cost the residents of Grenfell tower their lives.
Abdulaziz, age 52, lived with his wife Faouzia, age 41, and their three children Yasin, 20, Nur Huda, 16, and Medhi, 8, in an apartment on the 21nd floor of Grenfell tower. When fire broke out, they had nowhere to go, and no way to escape. Son Yasin, arriving home from work, saw the tower in flames, and raced back into the building to save his family. He was unable to do anything. The entire family perished in the blaze.
"Just eight when he died and about to finish year three at Oxford Gardens primary school, within sight of his home in Grenfell Tower, the headteacher, Sarah Cooper, remembers Mehdi El Wahabi coming in dressed up as a caveman. "He had a wonderful sense of humour but was also very, very gentle. He would involve and reassure everybody," she says.
Mehdi was the doted-on youngest child of his parents, Abdulaziz and Faouzia El Wahabi, and in the words of his aunt Hanan Wahabi, "definitely the baby of the family".
She added: "Because he was the youngest he was cared for a lot, bless him. He wasn't spoiled in the sense that he would get anything he wanted but they all mothered him." In photographs he invariably wears a broad smile.
The landing outside his family's 21st-floor flat was used as a play area by Mehdi, his nine-year-old cousin Sara Chebiouni, who lived several floors down, and the daughter of a neighbour. Inside the flat Mehdi enjoyed playing Minecraft and with Lego. He had small toys including Minions, Furbies and fidget spinners "arranged all over his desk so there was no more space, he was like a collector", remembers Sara.
He liked ice-cream and curry, and kept a squishy red, white and blue rocket toy on his bed. Had he lived to adulthood, Sara says, he would have liked to be a comedian – though she says he had some work to do on his jokes."
source:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2018/may/14/lives-of-grenfell-tower-victims-fire
Abdulaziz, age 52, lived with his wife Faouzia, age 41, and their three children Yasin, 20, Nur Huda, 16, and Medhi, 8, in an apartment on the 21nd floor of Grenfell tower. When fire broke out, they had nowhere to go, and no way to escape. Son Yasin, arriving home from work, saw the tower in flames, and raced back into the building to save his family. He was unable to do anything. The entire family perished in the blaze.
"Just eight when he died and about to finish year three at Oxford Gardens primary school, within sight of his home in Grenfell Tower, the headteacher, Sarah Cooper, remembers Mehdi El Wahabi coming in dressed up as a caveman. "He had a wonderful sense of humour but was also very, very gentle. He would involve and reassure everybody," she says.
Mehdi was the doted-on youngest child of his parents, Abdulaziz and Faouzia El Wahabi, and in the words of his aunt Hanan Wahabi, "definitely the baby of the family".
She added: "Because he was the youngest he was cared for a lot, bless him. He wasn't spoiled in the sense that he would get anything he wanted but they all mothered him." In photographs he invariably wears a broad smile.
The landing outside his family's 21st-floor flat was used as a play area by Mehdi, his nine-year-old cousin Sara Chebiouni, who lived several floors down, and the daughter of a neighbour. Inside the flat Mehdi enjoyed playing Minecraft and with Lego. He had small toys including Minions, Furbies and fidget spinners "arranged all over his desk so there was no more space, he was like a collector", remembers Sara.
He liked ice-cream and curry, and kept a squishy red, white and blue rocket toy on his bed. Had he lived to adulthood, Sara says, he would have liked to be a comedian – though she says he had some work to do on his jokes."
source:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2018/may/14/lives-of-grenfell-tower-victims-fire
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
