We were ready to die that night, say Grenfell fire team
HEROIC firefighters who battled the Grenfell Tower inferno have recalled the hellish scenes they encountered as flames devoured the building last month.
Commanders from London Fire Brigade have described how every member of their rescue team was prepared to die that night.
The scale of the crisis escalated rapidly as the blaze whipped up the structure in a matter of minutes, trapping dozens inside.
Pat Goulbourne and Richard Welch, the senior officers at the scene that night, described the chaos as a rescue operation became entwined with the battle against the blaze.
Mr Welch said: “Every single person in that building was willing to lose their life to try to save others. Every single person.”
He said he was first alerted to the unfolding disaster early in the morning of Wednesday, June 14.
“My pager went off at 1.18am to inform me of a flat fire at Grenfell Tower,” Mr Welch said.
Declare
“Initially they had six machines there. Then they asked for eight, then 10, then 15, 20, 25. I’m hearing that on the way there, so it’s becoming really clear we’ve got a serious incident going on.”
He added: “One of the first things I did was declare it a major incident because I knew we were going to need a lot of help.”
Mr Goulbourne said: “As I was approaching I knew we had the job of our lives on the go.
“I could see fire from the lower floors and couldn’t believe I was looking at fire to the top.
“I’ve never seen anything like that, ever. The fire was changing, it was moving rapidly.”
Hundreds of people had been inside Grenfell Tower when the fire took hold.
Mr Goulbourne said: “You could hear people screaming.
“People were making for help. It was dreadful.
“There are hundreds of people in there – men, women, children – coming out fully sooted. Black.
“They had been through a layer of smoke in complete distress.”
The perilous state of the stairwell complicated the rescue. Mr Welch said: “We had hoses going signals up the staircase and people trying to get out coming down, and the staircase filling with smoke.
“The priority was to try to reach the flats we knew had people in.
“The issue we had was the intensity of the fire.
“There was also the potential for the building to collapse.” At least 80 people died. Commander for the London Borough Steve Dudeney said: “Firefighters were laying about with haunted looks in their eyes.
“After 30 years in the London Fire Brigade I didn’t ever expect to see anything like that. And I pray to God I never will again.” Some of the firefighters involved returned to the scene days later to look at tributes to victims left by the local community.
Mr Welch added: “There is a feeling of being extremely proud of what we did and how hard everyone worked.
“But there’s also that horrific feeling that we didn’t get everybody. And we tried. Really hard.”
Hear the stories in full on Inside London Fire Brigade, a threepart ITV series starting tonight