Rowe Court resident experiences flashbacks from fatal flat fire

A flat-fire survivor has revisited the site of the blaze that left him with extreme burn injuries.

On 15 December 2021, Rowe Court in Reading was set alight in an arson attack that killed two men.

Joel Richards, who had to jump from a first-floor window, said: "You always feel that you could have done more."

He told the BBC he is still experiencing flashbacks: "It's always the same thing, being trapped in that corridor."

Around 03:00 GMT on the night of the fire, Mr Richards heard disruption in the block of flats: "I could hear screaming from upstairs, it's something that stays with me."

When he looked out his window, a neighbour told him the building was on fire and he had to jump.

"My first reaction was to get people out because they weren't aware and I knew most people were asleep and I could hear no fire alarm or anything going off."

Mr Richards' neighbour jumped out of the window first and said he could catch a female occupant who Mr Richards found out later was six months pregnant.

Mr Richards then jumped from the first-floor flat and, after landing on the ground, found he had received serious burn injuries.

"I just kept thinking my face felt funny," he said. "My face looks OK now but it was completely burned."

'People were very generous'

When asked whether he was comfortable with his decision to go and find his neighbours, Mr Richards told BBC Radio Berkshire: "Would I do it again? The answer is yes, every time."

Mr Richards was in A&E for 24 hours then moved to Stoke Mandeville Hospital for about a week.

He said: "I was fortunate people were very generous."

People donated over £1,000 to Mr Richards following the incident which he said helped while "getting my feet back"

Ugandan national Hakeem Kigundu had entered the UK illegally

Evicted tenant Hakeem Kigundu, 32, set the blaze and was jailed for life in October 2022 after pleading guilty to the murders of Richard Burgess, 46, and Neil Morris, 45, who died in the fire.

"It's hard to forgive somebody if you don't understand why they've done it," Mr Richards said when asked how he felt following the sentencing.

At court, he said Mr Kigundu would not even look at him.

"He's changed everybody's life for good, we no longer have a home."

An assessment of the building found the majority of it to be unsalvageable and it was demolished

A structural assessment concluded the vast majority of the building was unsalvageable and it was demolished.

Reading Borough Council submitted a new proposal for the 24 studio and one-bedroom flats to be reinstated to provide "leaseholders with their lost homes".

Returning to the site a year later, Mr Richards said: "You'd have no idea there was anything there."

When asked whether he would go back to the new homes, he said: "It's like Grenfell [Tower], nobody wants to go back and live in Grenfell."

He also said the night of the fire had also made his faith stronger: "I do believe something was guiding me and telling me to do the things I did because there's no reason I should have survived."

Today, Mr Richards and his partner run a social enterprise to repurpose donated furniture and some of the money goes towards psychologists from the burns unit.