I’m so sorry we couldn’t get them out
Grenfell fireman told victims to stay on the 14th floor – but had to leave eight behind as his oxygen ran out
A FIREMAN who told residents to stay inside Grenfell Tower made an emotional apology to their families yesterday.
Desmond Murphy appeared to fight back tears as he told of the agonising decision to leave eight trapped residents on the 14th floor, because he and other firefighters were running out of air and did not have the equipment to rescue them safely.
He believed an attempt to guide them down 14 storeys through choking, acrid smoke would have meant leading them to their deaths, but said one man begged him: ‘Please don’t leave us.’
Four of the eight people left on the 14th floor died in the fire, including mother Zainab Deen and her two-year- old son Jeremiah, and Syrian refugee Mohammad Alhajali.
Apologising to their grieving families, Mr Murphy said: ‘I’m very sorry that we couldn’t get your loved ones out of the building.’
Four firefighters were ordered to try to reach the 14th floor after resident Denis Murphy, 56, told 999 operators he was trapped in his flat and could not escape. They reached him shortly after 2am – about an hour after the fire broke out – and found his flat was smokelogged and he was coughing.
Smoke had not yet reached other flats on the floor so he and four neighbours were told to take refuge in a neighbour’s flat, keep the door closed and wait for rescue.
Desmond Murphy, who has worked as a fireman for 20 years, said he would have tried to rescue the six adults and two children if he believed they would have survived the attempt.
He said: ‘I wasn’t prepared to take anybody into that stairwell with the smoke conditions. If I had taken anyone down it would have led them to a very early death. It wasn’t safe.’
Firefighters described having to negotiate the smoke-filled stairwell by touch alone because they could not see, and said their radios did not work so they were unable to call for back-up.
Mr Murphy and his colleague, Charles Cornelius, almost ran out of air in their breathing apparatus on their way back down the tower block’s only stairwell, the public inquiry into last year’s tragedy was told. once they reached commanders at the base of the tower, they told them about the eight people trapped in the flat.
More crews were sent up at 2.26am and eventually led two men, a woman and a young girl to safety. But four people – Denis Murphy, Mr Alhajali, 23, Miss Deen, 32, and Jeremiah – were not rescued and died in the fire.
Mr Alhajali’s brother omar, 25, was among those who were led to safety, but questioned if firefighters had searched properly for his brother and the other victims before leaving the flat.
He said smoke in the stairwell was so thick that he did not realise his brother was not with him until he got outside.
The brothers’ father Nedal has previously said it was ‘criminal’ that families were told to stay inside their flats for almost two hours after the fire began.
Peter Herrera, the last firefighter to leave the 14th-floor flat when it was evacuated, said he had not seen anyone else inside, and had believed the flat was empty.
Mr Herrera said: ‘I’m very, very sorry if I have let anyone down or not done what was expected of me. I’m very sorry.’
Seventy-two people died in the fire on June 14 last year.
‘Please don’t leave us’