Firefighters ‘urged bosses to ditch stay-put policy as Grenfell inferno raged’

Brigade chiefs defend plan to public inquiry, blaming building refurbishment for altering block’s safe design

FIREFIGHTERS at Grenfell Tower urged senior officers to abandon the policy of telling residents to stay inside their flats, a public inquiry was told yesterday.

Senior London Fire Brigade officers only decided that the building had to be evacuated nearly two hours after crews first arrived as until then they were relying on the fire being contained. The public inquiry into the fire that killed 72 people heard there was dissent within the brigade about the adherence to the “stay-put” policy.

Survivors heard that what started as a small kitchen fire became an inferno because Grenfell Tower had been fitted, in breach of building and safety regulations, with combustible cladding as part of a refurbishment carried out by Kensington and Chelsea council.

Danny Friedman QC, counsel for some families, said many statements from more than 250 firefighters “emphatically queried the logic of maintaining the stay-put advice up to 2.47am, given that compartmentation had already begun to fail by 1.15am and had obviously failed by 1.26am”.

The inquiry heard how some of those told to remain died – despite telling the control room that flames were licking at doors and windows. Others survived by ignoring the advice.

Mr Friedman said there had been lost opportunities to evacuate. One group was advised to congregate in flat 113 “and stay put”. They included Syrians Omar al-haj Ali, 25, and his brother Mohammad, 23, Dennis Murphy, 56, and Zainab Deen, 32. Only Omar survived.

Paulos Tekle and Genet Shawo were told at 3am to get out “by any means necessary”, but by then conditions on the stairs were so dire that their fiveyear-old son Isaac became separated and died. Marcio Gomes, 39, and his pregnant wife Andreia, 38, escaped. Mr Gomes stated: “The delay in telling us to evacuate nearly killed us and it did kill my baby son, I have no doubt of that.”

The brigade, in its first response, defended the “stay-put” decision, saying it was suitable for the block’s original design, as the fire should have been contained within the flat. But “maintenance programmes and refurbishments” had undermined the safety of the building, it said. Evacuation risked creating log jams as firefighters tried to go up the stairs and could have led to panic and more deaths from smoke inhalation.

Firms involved in the refurbishment were yesterday accused of increasing “pain and uncertainty” by not fully engaging with the public inquiry. Subcontractors refused to comment and Stephanie Barwise QC, for survivors and the bereaved, said their silence was “inhumane”, adding that Rydon, the main contractor, was being “disingenuous” about its involvement.