Fireman: I tried to tell Grenfell victims to flee

A SENIOR fireman has said he urged Gren- fell Tower residents to ignore official advice to ‘stay put’ and escape the blaze.

Daniel Egan told the inquiry into the tragedy: ‘I was doing what I felt was right.’

Mr Egan, who has served with the fire brigade for 26 years, arrived at the scene shortly before 2am on June 14 last year and co-ordinated 999 call information.

He told the inquiry yesterday that his ‘initial thoughts were that we needed to get people out’.

Residents were advised by the fire brigade to await rescue inside their flats until 2.47am – a decision feared to have been fatal. The blaze claimed 72 lives.

Mr Egan began overruling the stay-put advice when talking to onlookers who had loved ones in the tower, the hearing was told. Mr Egan, a station manager in regulatory fire safety, said that he advised anyone on the phone to friends and family inside the tower to tell them to ‘get out of the building’.

He added: ‘I know that it was against what they should have been doing or what they were being told to do, but in that situation I told them to get out.’