»A firefighter’s account:
A Grenfell Tower firefighter has written a harrowing account of the impossible choices he faced on the 20th floor of the of the burning building. Sharing his story on Facebook page Save the UK Fire Service, he writes about having to decide whether to save a couple struggling to breathe on the 20th floor, or carrying on to save five people on the floor above. It begins with a description of the approach to the building at about 1.20am – 26 minutes after the blaze was first reported to emergency services. After running with heavy equipment from four or five streets away, the firefighter was told by the watch manager to head up to the 23rd floor of the 24-storey building, weighed down by more than 30kg of equipment and breathing apparatus. This is how that terrible night unfolded...
“WE made our way up a crowded stairwell struggling to make progress, at times unable to pass because of the amount of people on the stairs. The stairwells were full of other BA crews bringing people down all in various states and conditions.
“The smoke grew thicker with each floor we went up. No proper floor numbers on the stairwells after about the 5th floor made it hard to know where you were. Someone before us had tried to write them on the wall with chinagraph pencil but this didn’t last long. The dirty smoke was covering the walls with a film of blackness.
“Around the 9th floor we lost all visibility and the heat was rising. Still we continued up and up through the blackness. We reached what we believed to be the 19/20th floor but there was no way to tell.
“It was here where we found a couple trying to find their way out, panicking, choking, blinded by the thick toxic air.
“A quick gauge check showed us that the amount of floors we’d climbed had taken its toll, we were getting low on air. There’s no way we could make it to the 23rd and back to the bridgehead.
“The couple were shouting and screaming at us through the coughing, trying to tell us there were five more people on the floor above.
“Now I had horrible decisions to make and a very short amount of time to make them.
“In what I think would of [sic] been less than a minute these are all the things I had going through my head. I will list a few of them for you. All of which I needed to consider before making my decision...
Now that we’ve stopped and lost our rhythm on the stairs, would we have enough air to leave this couple and try to reach the next floor?;
was the information we are getting from these people correct? After all they are frantically panicking as they choke and suffer from the heat;
if we let them carry on down the stairs alone would they, or could they, find their own way out?;
if we went up another floor would we actually find the five?;
if we found them what state would they be in? Could the two of us get that many out especially one or more are unconscious?;
how would we decide who to take?;
do we have enough air to make it back down to safety ourselves from where we are?;
should I be considering asking my BA partner – a “new mother” – to risk even more than she already has...?;
can I accept/live with the thought that saving two lives is better than taking the risk to go up and potentially saving no one?”
He goes on to say that he told himself to think and asked “Am I doing enough? Can I give more? Am I forgetting any of my training?” before telling himself to “stop, breathe and think”.
The firefighter then asked the following questions:
Why haven’t we seen another crew for so long?; will another crew find them?; are we really where we think we are?;
the radios are playing up... have we missed an important message?; have all crews been pulled out?; is the structure still safe? “Come on make a decision... and make it quick these people are choking ....... Ok Ok Ok! Damn! Come on! Think! Right... ok. Decision made!
“I do a double check... ask my partner... Is it the right decision..? Ahhh. I’m doubting myself. Ahhh! there’s no time for this! Come on get on with it...
“Right! Make the call! I try to radio down to entry control. ‘Alpha Control Priority!’ No response ....
“’Alpha Control Priority!’ Still No response... Where are they... what’s going on?!? ‘Alpha Control Priority!’
“Did they answer... it’s hard to tell.. the signal is all broken. I think I can just about hear something.
“’Alpha Control Priority!’ Alpha control responds... ‘Go ahead with priority, over.’
“Are they talking to me? I can’t hear my call sign...Pass the message
“’Alpha control... Two casualties found approx 20th floor, crew now escorting them down, request another BA team be committed to reach flat on 23rd floor. Further traffic...