The brother of London fire victim Mohammed Alhajali has spoken of the heartbreaking moment he realised his sibling would die.

Mohammed, a 23-year-old refugee from Syria, was the first named victim from the deadly Grenfell Tower inferno that has killed at least 17 people, with that toll expected to rise significantly.

The civil engineering student was in the 14th floor flat with his brother Omar – who escaped – but did not recognise fire-fighters were in the building due to the thick smoke that engulfed the apartment.

Omar tragically revealed that he only found out Mohammed was still inside the apartment when he rang him from outside, and that he asked ‘Why you left me?’ during an emotional phone call.

“The fire was very close. And they [fire-fighters], came, they came in the last minute,” a distraught Omar told the BBC.

“They said when the fire was in the next room, the smoke was coming inside. They said: ‘Come, come’, and they were pushing us.

“I couldn’t see anything. They opened the door. The smoke come in inside, I’ve seen the fire around me and they were pushing, pushing us, they pushing all of us. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t look around. I didn’t even see anything, even my fingers, nothing.

“I went outside, I called him [Omar], I said ‘Where are you’? He said: ‘I’m in the flat’. I said ‘Why you didn’t come, they brought us outside, I thought you were with us’.

“He said ‘No one brought me outside’. He said ‘Why you left me?’”.

Omar then broke down in tears before adding: “I saw the fire and the flat from outside.

“I was watching the flat. It was burning and my brother, he was inside.

“We came from Syria to be safe here and now we dying here.”

The tragic story is one of many to emerge in the aftermath of the fire, which UK Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered a public inquiry into.

The aftermath of the London fire. Photo: AAP/EPA

“[Fire-fighters] told me that the way this fire had spread and took hold of the building was rapid, it was ferocious, it was unexpected,” she said.

“So it is right that, in addition to the immediate fire report that will be produced and any potential police investigation, that we do have a full public inquiry to get to the bottom of this.”

The Syria Solidarity Campaign released a statement that said the UK had failed Mohammed Alhajali.

“Mohammed undertook a dangerous journey to flee war and death in Syria, only to meet it here in the UK, in his own home,” they said.

“Mohammed came to this country for safety and the UK failed to protect him.”

Other victims

A further six victims have been provisionally identified but confirmation on others may not be forthcoming.

Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy said: “There is a risk that sadly we may not be able to identify everybody.

“I hope it [death toll] is not triple figures, but I can’t be drawn on the numbers.”