First firefighters ‘did not expect exterior of flats to be flammable’ First crews believed blaze was contained and put out within the flat where it started

The first firefighters on the scene at Grenfell Tower ‘wouldn’t have thought to look outside’, a senior union official has said.

Dave Green, national officer at the Fire Brigades Union, spoke after claims were raised on the BBC’s Panorama that the first crews to arrive believed the blaze was contained and extinguished within the flat where it started.

The programme on Monday night quoted sources as alleging it was only as those firefighters left the building that they saw the blaze was still burning on the outside of the 24-storey tower in north Kensington.

Some 79 people are either confirmed as dead or missing presumed dead after the tragedy in the early hours of June 14.

Mr Green said the claim was “speculation” but that 1970s buildings like Grenfell Tower were designed so that each flat was a box which contained fire within itself, with a non-flammable concrete exterior.

There has been speculation that cladding applied to the outside of the building during an £8.6 million renovation project finished in May 2016 may have played a role in the spread of the fire.

Mr Green said: “Clearly it was a hot night and if the (fire) was fairly close to an open window then potentially the flames could have got outside – if there were net curtains, something like that, it could have got up.

“Then the cladding might well have been smouldering.

“As a firefighter you wouldn’t have thought to look outside. We would assume that the outside of the building would not be compromised.”

Mr Green, who was a firefighter in Nottinghamshire for 20 years, added: “There is no reason why me as a firefighter would think that the outside of the building was compromised in any way.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday, setting out what he believed should happen during the public inquiry into the blaze.

This included a recommendation that it be split into two parts, one looking at the tragedy itself and one looking at what happens in the future.

Picture: Getty Images. Firefighters tackle the huge fire that engulfed Grenfell Tower on June 14.

Picture: PA. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan after a service outside St Clements Church, near to Grenfell Tower.