[Image: A girl with light brown skin and curly black hair looking at the camera]
Part 12 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
Jessica Urbano Ramirez, from the 20th floor of Grenfell Tower
12-year-old Jessica Urbano Ramirez was alone when the fire started,
as her mother and sister were working and her father was visiting someone else in the block. Her family desperately hoped she had survived, and she was briefly listed as missing, with Doctor Who actor Noel Clarke (a friend of her uncle) among those who appealed for information. But sadly she had died. She would have turned 13 on 4 July.
She is believed to have died alongside Berkti Haftom and her
son Biruk. Berkti lent her a phone to call her mother, family members said, and their bodies were among six found in the flat of Raymond “Moses”
Bernard. After Jessica’s mother Adriana got the call she ran back home, but
firefighters prevented her from entering the building.
Jessica’s family released a statement via Metropolitan Police:
“We have received probably the hardest news any parents will
ever have had to bear, over the past weeks we have been in a state of confusion and limbo. Now that she has been formally identified we feel totally crushed.Nothing will ever bring our little girl back, and we are
angry that this should ever have happened to our little angel. We will not rest until we get justice for her and for the many other lives lost as a result of this crime.We will only feel justice has been served when the highest possible charges are applied to culpable individuals. We entrust this task to the authorities in the hope that we will not be let down.”
Our little girl was loving, kind-hearted and caring. She brought joy to everyone who met her and her laugh was contagious.
Jessica will leave a lasting legacy in the hearts of her family and friends and the many, many people who didn’t know her personally but
have come to know her since that night of 14 June.Her light will shine bright and will light our individual paths as we start to move forward into coming to terms with our loss and heartbreak.”
–
Sources
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/16/young-girl-escaped-fire-draws-heartbreaking-image-blaze/
http://www.thejournal.ie/london-fire-kensington-3442864-Jun2017/
http://www.etelford.co.uk/News/Details/25349
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-week/20170624/281479276417858