999 HEROES
Firefighter: It felt like 9/11 Heat above Floor 10 was hell
WHILE the survivors of Grenfell Tower were staggering to safety, firefighters were striding past them into the flames.
As one group in full breathing gear headed past the police cordon and into mortal danger, one of them said matter-of-factly: “We’re going in and we’re going up.”
A resident who escaped said: “As I was running down the stairs I went past a fireman who was running up.”
Senior firefighters said they had never seen such heroism.
London Fire Brigade later said they had rescued 65 people from the building.
The crews were in danger before they even got into the 24-storey block. Police held riot shields above their heads to protect them from falling chunks of burning debris as they went inside.
One fire officer, called Terry, said: “We had to run under the shields because of the amount of debris.
“There was one small staircase that everyone was going up. It was just like the images of 9/11 when all the firefighters went in.
“We were going up the staircase and people were coming down in smoke.
“I don’t know how they were breathing. It’s like a war zone here.”
Terry said he had been a firefighter for 27 years but had not seen anything like Grenfell Tower.
He and his comrades did all they could to get people out before the danger simply became too great.
Like many of the firefighters, Terry couldn’t get higher than the 10th floor. The heat from then on was too intense.
Off-duty nurse Simone Williams said: “They were coming out shouting that it was too hot. They couldn’t get past the 10th floor – it was just too hot.
“There were 200-plus firefighters and even they were coming out with injuries, and they have special equipment. It was very obvious people were not going to get out.”
But some crews made it higher than the 10th. And Eddie Daffarn, 55, will always be glad they did.
Eddie fled his 16th-floor flat after a neighbour alerted him but got confused and lost in the choking smoke as he tried to find a way out.
Then he stumbled over a firefighter, who was on the floor to avoid the worst of the smoke.
“He was able to help me into the fire escape,” Eddie said. “If I’d been in that stairwell any longer I don’t think I’d have found the exit.
“You couldn’t see a thing. I was choking badly. It was a moment of life or death for me. I didn’t have that much time to think.”
Eddie lost his home of 20 years and everything in it. But he said: “I’m very grateful that the London Fire Brigade were there to help me.”
Fire crews later made it all the way to the top floor, but it was a horrific task.
London Fire Brigade safety director Steve Apter said the crews who got there had to deal with “particularly arduous conditions”.
He added that the fire was “unprecedented in scale, speed and spread”.
Like Terry, Ian Leahair, an executive council member for the London Fire Brigades Union, has been involved with the service for 27 years.
He said the courage shown yesterday was the finest he had seen.
Ian added: “The amount of firefighters that have gone into this building, the exhaustion levels they battled through – it is nothing short of heroic.
“Their expectations on arrival
were not for something on this scale.
“I know they are devastated because they have done all they can but they couldn’t do more.”
Ian also praised the control room staff who dealt with calls from terrified people trapped in the tower.
He said: “They’ve had to have horrific conversations with people fearing for their lives. That is not an easy job.”
Forty fire service vehicles carrying 250 firefighters raced to Grenfell Tower from across London.
The first crew was there within six minutes of the alarm being raised.
Engines arrived from Hornsey and Hendon and from Stratford and Walthamstow. The Kent fire and rescue search dogs were brought in.
After coming out of the fire, many crews slumped on to the pavement, exhausted. Local shopkeepers gave them free water and sandwiches.
One local resident who watched the rescue effort wrote on Twitter: “This really is a remarkable sight, firemen and women putting their lives at risk while exhausting all their energy. Heroes.”
Staff at the nearby Camelford Walk street cleaning depot opened up specially so they could make tea for the fire crews.
Manager John Canty said: “It was the very least we could do for these brave men and women.”
Several firefighters were hurt in the rescue operation, but London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said none of them had serious injuries.
She added: “That is a testament to their professionalism and dedication, consididering the scale of this, the number of my firefighters involved and how hard they have worked.
“In my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never, ever seen anything of this scale.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan said: “More than 250 firefighters are at the scene and there have been more than 100 medics in attendance, as well as 100 police officers.
‘I want to thank our incredible firefighters and emergency services for their immense courage, dedication and professionalism.”
It was a moment of life and death ..I’ll always be grateful to the fire brigade SURVIVOR