Grenfell fire chief ’s ‘impossible decision’ to tell escaping man to return for children

 A fire officer told a father trying to escape Grenfell Tower to go back and look for his children and wife, despite knowing he would probably die, the public inquiry into the blaze heard.

Jason Oliff, station manager at Chiswick and Feltham north west area, was responsible for relaying information from 999 calls made by trapped residents from the control room to the incident officers. He recalled being told by a 999 operator about Marcio Gomes, Andreia, his pregnant wife, and their two daughters as they tried to escape.

The phone operator was on a call to Mr Gomes, and had advised him to leave the flat, in the belief firefighters would be nearby to guide the family to safety.

However, she soon realised the family would have to make the descent alone through the smoke.

Mr Gomes stayed on the phone and told the operator he had lost his wife in the confusion, later becoming separated from his children.

In a statement, Mr Oliff explained that the operator asked “What do I tell him”.

He said: “This was an impossible decision to make, there was no right or wrong answer I could give and I did not give this advice easily. I told the operator ‘tell him to go back and get his daughters’. I knew in saying this that the male probably wouldn’t survive but my thinking was that, if it was me, I wouldn’t want to get out of that tower without my family and live with that for the rest of my life.”

Mr Oliff later learnt the family had survived, but that their unborn baby had died.