Temperatures can be hundreds of degrees’

“You are talking about in excess of 30 kilos worth of kit and you’re dragging that plus a length of hose up flights of stairs.

“There’s that additional physical stress, never mind the emotional stress of going into a hazardous of situation and thinking about your own safety and the safety and your colleagues.

“You’re working in thick black smoke and temperatures can be hundreds of degrees, a thousand degrees at ceiling level.”

“It makes you immensely proud to be part of a service that is rewarded by the communities for the service that they’ve delivered.

“Essentially, it is their job, but there are stories coming out in the media where firefighters have gone beyond the call of duty to try and support those communities and rescue people.

“My hat goes off to them. They’re incredibly brave men and women for tackling that fire on the day and I know they’ll be getting all the support they need from the London fire service.”

“We have situations plans in place to deal with this sort of incident.

“Firefighters train for fires like these week-in, week-out so we’re more than capable.

“In fact, we were actually doing high rising training at one station the day before the Grenfell Tower happened.”

“I stress that it is an evacuation policy – it’s just about getting people out of the building in a structured and logical way when a fire does occur.

“If you smell smoke or have a fire in your flat, our advice has always been to leave via the safest route, usually the stairs.

“If someone is involved in a fire, our advice has always been to leave via the safest route, usually the stairs.

“We’ve got to make sure that people understand that ‘staying put’ is part of an evacuation strategy.”

“My personal view is that our powers are suitable and sufficient to enforce the legislation as it stands and I think the legislation is appropriate”.