A fashion designer who died in a fire that tore through a tower block, killing six people, was about to receive a proposal of marriage.

Catherine Hickman’s boyfriend Mark Bailey, a hair stylist, was in New York when he heard about the blaze at the block in Camberwell, south London.

Bailey, 32, said: “I had decided during the trip that I was going to propose to Cat when I returned. When I got a call to say there was a fire at the flat I caught the first flight back, but it was too late.”

Police, who are investigating the blaze, yesterday named Hickman, 31, as a victim of the fire together with Helen Udoaka, 34, and her three-week-old daughter Michelle, Dayana Cervi, 26, and her son Filipe, 3. The remaining victim, whose identity has not yet been confirmed by police, is understood to be Cervi’s six-year-old daughter Thais.

“I am not a religious person, but I was praying I’d get to see her to tell her I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her,” Bailey told The Sunday Times. “She knew that I loved her.

“She was a truly saintly person, the most generous, beautiful girl I ever met. I don’t know how to live without her.”

Bailey said Hickman, who grew up on a farm in Hampshire, worked for a west London boutique designing and making dresses. “She would refashion or remodel beautiful vintage dresses,” he said. “She would make specialist bespoke garments for celebrities, too.”

Police said all of the dead were on the 11th floor of the block. The fire broke out at around 4.10pm on Friday afternoon and is believed to have started on the ninth floor.

A graphic picture of the final minutes of those who died began to emerge yesterday from heartbreaking accounts of their last telephone calls to loved ones along with questions about why the rescue service could not save them.

Mbet Udoaka was one of those who was only able to watch helplessly from the street as his wife Helen and his newborn daughter Michelle were trapped inside.

Udoaka, 37, raced home from work after receiving a call from Helen saying she was trapped in their flat with Michelle.

He tried to rush past police and firefighters, but they blocked his way. Instead he reached his frantic wife by phone.

His cousin Mary said: “Helen was panicking and crying, but they were on the phone to each other constantly until she was too weak to cry. He was beside himself. He so wanted to run to their rescue but was stopped.

“Michelle was brought out at about 8pm and taken to King’s College hospital wearing an oxygen mask. Mbet went with her. But she was dead — I saw her dead in the emergency room in a basket.”

Michelle, the youngest victim of the blaze, was the couple’s first child. “Everyone in the family was so pleased and they were planning the christening,” Mary added.

“They were such a loving couple and you don’t know what to say.”

Rafael Cervi, Dayana’s husband, had also raced home after learning of the fire.

Neighbour Yolimar Caboz told how she had a series of dramatic phone conversations with Dayana when the fire took hold.

“When the fire started, I called Dayana and said, ‘Where are you? Please come down quickly’. She said, ‘I can’t go down, there’s too much smoke.’

“I told her to get wet towels over her head and the children’s, and try to get through the smoke. I said, ‘Please, do it quickly.’

“She promised me she would try. I called her again in about eight minutes. I thought by that time she would be down with the children.

“At about 5pm her husband Rafael arrived. He was so distressed. He was talking to her on the phone, I was speaking to the firemen, the police, the ambulance, telling anyone I could she was trapped in the building with her babies.

“Dayana told me, ‘I tried to get out but the firemen told me to stay in the bathroom with the children and put wet towels on the floor.’

“She was staying calm because she didn’t want to scare the children, she was keeping calm for them. She said, ‘I am okay, I am.’ She sounded sad, she was trying to stay in control but she was so scared. The children were silent, they were quiet. That was the last time I spoke to her.”

Rafael said that when he first spoke to his wife she told him that she did not feel she was in danger. He said: “I called her straight away and she was fine. There were no flames in our flat and she was not scared.”

By the time he arrived on the scene the fire had spread to the 11th floor. “I could see the fire was spreading into my little girl’s room. I told my wife to take the curtains down from the window so it wouldn’t spread.”

Last night Rafael was inconsolable. “I’ve lost my family,” he said. “They were everything I had. It’s a very bad time. We are speaking to the police at the moment and trying to work out exactly what happened.

And he asked of the firemen: “Why didn’t one of them go to save my family? Why didn’t they send someone to every flat where they knew someone was in?”

His questions were echoed by Udoaka who said: “I believe that a lot more could have been done to save the victims. They had over three hours to save them.”

Twelve other people were taken to hospital, including a fireman who was still receiving treatment last night.

A police spokesman said although there was no evidence to suggest the fire had been started deliberately, it was being treated as “potentially suspicious” until the cause could be established.

Residents of the Sceaux Gardens estate, where the 1960s-built Lakanal House tower block is situated, described the 14-storey building as a “death trap” which should have been torn down.

They pointed out its dilapidated state, with continuously broken lifts and rubbish strewn throughout a single central stairwell which did not provide an adequate method of escape in the event of fire.

Some residents said that smoke alarms installed inside the building’s flats seven years ago were poorly maintained and there were no warning systems in the corridors and communal areas.

Ed Hammond, 37, an accountant who lives on the seventh floor of the tower said the flats were “death traps”. He added: “If the fire is in the central area, you would virtually have nowhere to go.”

Witnesses told how the fire spread rapidly. Cojo Masophe, 24, said: “At around 4pm I saw a lot of smoke and heard glass smashing. I was on the third floor, below the fire. We ran down the stairwell to get out but it was already filling up with smoke.

“When we were outside I saw a man and woman trapped above the fire, screaming. The guy was trying to make a rope out of bed sheets but it didn’t work.

“He was getting desperate and was going to jump but people said, ‘Don’t do it.’ A woman on the seventh floor was holding her baby in the air screaming, ‘Help me, help me’.”

Harriet Harman, the deputy prime minister and MP for Camberwell and Peckham, visited the scene of the tragedy yesterday, and said the block’s safety record would have to be “carefully scrutinised”.

Boris Johnson, the London mayor, said: “It does seem suspicious that the fire was spreading so quickly and clearly that will be one of the prime subjects for the investigation.

“Obviously we will want to know . . . whether there was any malign intent.”

Nick Stanton, the Liberal Democrat leader of Southwark council, said he “understood and shared the concerns” of residents. He added: “This is how buildings were constructed in the 1960s. The whole block was extensively refurbished two years ago, but there is a limit to how much a borough council like Southwark can do.”

Additional reporting:

Chris Gourlay and Sara Dixon

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