But survivors blast brigade’s ‘stay put’
FIRE chief Dany Cotton hit back yesterday at damning criticism of her staff in a report on the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
The inquiry chairman slammed the London Fire Brigade’s policy of telling residents to stay put during the inferno that killed 72.
Brigade boss Ms Cotton, 50, said: “We are disappointed at some of the criticism of individual staff members who were placed in completely unprecedented circumstances and faced the most unimaginable conditions while trying to save the lives of others.”
But relatives of victims in the 2017 inferno in west London were unimpressed.
Disgrace
Nabil Choucaire, who lost his mother, his sister and her husband plus three nieces, said: “It is a disgrace when you look at the inquiry and you hear ‘I cannot remember’ and ‘I forgot.’
“We have gone through hell and back. We can still remember. Why can they not remember? If you do not change it, we will have another Grenfell.”
And Nazanin Aghlani, 32, who lost two family members, said: “If a fire went off in my home, I would not even call them because they are not capable.”
Inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said in his report many lives would have been saved if the “stay put” strategy had been called off. Sir Martin concluded the fire was caused by an electrical fault in a fridge-freezer.
But the block’s cladding did not comply with building regulations and was the main reason for the fire’s “profoundly shocking” spread.
Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack said his members “strongly refute” it would have been possible or safe to attempt a mass evacuation.