Grenfell fire chief: I wasn’t trained to evacuate tower block
THE fireman in charge at Grenfell Tower had had no formal training on when to abandon the controversial ‘ stay put’ policy, he revealed yesterday. Michael Dowden, the incident commander for the crucial first hour, had not been trained in how to evacuate a tower block or how to judge when it might be needed.
The 37-year-old told the public inquiry into the tragedy he had initially believed firefighters could stop the fire from spreading, but he realised within 20 minutes ‘something had failed’.
As the most senior officer on the scene he was in command, but said he felt ‘quickly outside my comfort zone’ in trying to tackle the blaze, which spread with ferocious speed.
His evidence raised disturbing questions about training provided for firefighters who are expected to react instantly to save lives.
Survivors have claimed more lives could have been saved if residents had been told to get out, and not to ‘stay put’ and wait for rescue.
Fire experts have given evidence that the stay put policy had effectively failed by 1.26am – just 32 minutes after the first 999 call – but it was kept in place until 2.47am.
Mr Dowden did not anticipate how fast the fire would spread and asked about deciding on an evacuation, he said: ‘As an incident commander I cannot remember any time I have actually been on a training course that would facilitate that.’
As a watch manager the officer would usually have been an incident commander for up to four fire engines but suddenly found himself in charge of the worst fire on British soil since World War Two.
He said: ‘After about 20 minutes, I could see that something had failed, to make the fire react as it did.
‘When I saw Grenfell Tower behaving like this, I was quickly outside my comfort zone and was trying to make decisions that I have not made before.’
The catastrophic spread of the fire has been blamed on flammable cladding fitted to the council-owned building during a £9million refit.
Mr Dowden, a North Kensington watch manager, was shown London Fire Brigade training material warning fires could spread through cladding. He said he was unaware it was a risk or even that combustible cladding was used on high-rise buildings.
He said he would not have been able to spot a cladding fire, although his witness statement detailed that he noticed the outside of the building was ‘sparking and spitting’.
He had experience of tackling fires in tower blocks, he said, but nothing like Grenfell, and had been referred for counselling to help him cope with what he had witnessed.
Mr Dowden told the inquiry he had seen residents trapped inside, banging on windows for help, and a young boy who had escaped with his mother had told him his brother was still inside, ‘but that he was dead’.
Smoke was so toxic that fleeing residents fell unconscious if they breathed ‘two mouthfuls’. Children were carried out wearing firefighters’ breathing apparatus.
He told the inquiry: ‘I am not aware of any other way we could have dealt with this situation.’
Mr Dowden said in 14 years he had not been trained in how to evacuate children, the elderly and disabled people from a high-rise building. Of the 72 killed, 18 were children.
Mr Dowden visited Grenfell Tower in February 2016 during the refit. He said he had not checked the cladding or whether the building was equipped with sprinklers, fire lifts or fire doors. According to the fire brigade’s own risk assessment, Grenfell was a medium to low risk.