Evacuation of Grenfell ‘could have taken just seven minutes’

GRENFELL Tower could have been evacuated safely in as little as seven minutes, an expert said yesterday.

Professor David Purser, a fire safety expert, said there was a ‘golden early period’ in which people could escape from burning buildings before smoke and flames put their lives at risk.

He said it was safe for Grenfell residents to leave the block for more than an hour, despite there being just one narrow stairwell.

Seventy-two residents died as a result of the fire in the 24-storey block of flats in west London on June 14 last year.

His evidence to the public inquiry is likely to add to criticism of the London Fire Brigade’s controversial ‘stay put’ policy, which meant residents were told to stay inside their flats and wait for rescue.

Fire chiefs have defended it, saying a mass evacuation would have risked more lives.

However, Professor Purser said all of the estimated 293 people in the building could have been evacuated safely at the same time and got out in seven minutes, as they would have entered the stairwell on different floors.

He added that it would have been possible to descend from the top floor to the ground in three-and-a-half minutes.

Professor Purser told the inquiry: ‘If there were 293 people in the building that would represent an ideal nominal evacuation time of the whole population to the lobby in seven minutes if they all suddenly went into the stairs.

‘Of course, in practice you have children, elderly people, some disabled.’ Many survivors have said they only escaped because they ignored fire brigade advice.

The inquiry has heard that London Fire Brigade did not change its ‘stay put’ advice to householders for more than two hours.

Professor Purser said the lobto

‘No alarm system existed’

bies and stairwell became ‘hazardous’ with toxic smoke after about an hour, although residents continued to escape for several hours.

He said a seven-minute evacuation would only have been possible if there had been an alarm system telling them all evacuate. No such system existed at Grenfell.

He told the inquiry that most of the victims were likely to have died from inhaling toxic smoke, before the flames reached them.

Blood samples from residents who died in their flats or the stairwell showed high levels of exposure to carbon monoxide.

The rapid spread of the flames at Grenfell has been blamed on combustible cladding panels fitted to the outside of the block during a council-funded refurbishment.

Councils were yesterday given Government backing to strip cladding from private residential buildings taller than 18 metres (59ft). A ban on similar cladding on new high-rise residential blocks – as well as schools, care homes and student accommodation – will come into force next month.

The Government has already undertaken a £400million programme to remove similar materials from all high-rise social housing in England.

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said owners of private residential blocks should pay to remove aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding.

He said: ‘Everyone has a right to feel safe in their homes and I have repeatedly made clear that building owners and developers must replace dangerous ACM cladding. And the costs must not be passed on to leaseholders.’

The public inquiry, led by former Appeal Court judge Martin MooreBick, continues.