The first call to 999

report: “I am not aware that those people [at levels 21, 22 and 23] were provided with any assistance from LFB during the fire.”

Just two people who made their own way down from the 23rd floor survived.

Dany Cotton, the London Fire Brigade commissioner, who reached the scene at 2.29am, 18 minutes before the “stay-put” advice was withdrawn, said in a statement read out: “I have never seen a building where the whole of it was on fire. Nobody has ever seen that. It was incredible. It was alien to anything I had ever seen.”

Sir Martin Moore-bick, the retired judge and inquiry chairman, described video clips played to the inquiry showing the rapid spread of the fire as “truly shocking”. On one recording, a man can be heard shouting: “I told you, I told you, get out.”

As reported last week by The Daily Telegraph, survivors and grieving relatives have complained at the failure of the LFB to evacuate the building immediately. Some expressed concern that fire chiefs had received commendations before the inquiry had begun hearing evidence.

The inquiry also raised concerns yesterday about the use of police helicopters on the night of the fire.

Their deployment made some residents think they could be rescued from upper floors to which they fled to escape the smoke.

Mr Millett said: “The inquiry has been made aware of an ongoing IOPC [police watchdog] investigation into the use of police helicopters

‘The deployment of helicopters made some residents think they could be rescued from the upper floors’

on the night of the fire, including whether that might have encouraged some residents to remain in place or to move to the top of the tower and whether the operation of the police helicopters could have worsened the fire.”

Mr Millett said there had been a “catastrophic failure” of the external cladding, which had spread the fire.

Two other reports suggested there was “insufficient evidence” to say with total certainty that the fire started in a fridge-freezer.