As a fire expert, I say: Don’t stay put
As a former senior course director at the Fire Service College, I have to say that though the manner in which Jacob rees-Mogg made his comments caused huge distress to those affected by the Grenfell tragedy, we should not dismiss the core of his message: to ignore requests to stay put in a developing serious fire. Many who survived the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York ignored instructions to stay put. They reached safety by using the single fire escape from as high as the 105th floor. as deputy firemaster in the Grampian Fire brigade at the time of the Piper alpha offshore oil disaster, in which 147 oil workers lost their lives, making it the world’s worst offshore fire, we had direct feedback that lives were saved by those who did not follow the advice to stay put. Instead of going to the platform’s so-called safe haven, they jumped over the side into the sea. The recent fires at student flats in bolton and the Claremont hotel in Eastbourne, both multi-storey premises, could have resulted in fatalities under a stay-put policy. until the Home office ceased responsibility for the overall running of the Fire Service College and it was privatised and sold to Capita in 2013, most firefighters across the uK attended its courses. as they progressed through the service, they took part in a centralised, progressive training programme that not only covered all aspects of fire and rescue, but also construction materials and design, building inspection, the prevention of fire, management skills and brigade command. The training looked in detail at serious fires that had resulted in multiple fatalities, covering the issues that contributed to the rapid spread of the fire at Grenfell: flammable building materials, inadequate fire compartmentation and the command of a major incident. Previous generations of chief fire officers had fought for the establishment of the college instead of a fragmented approach to training by brigades across the country. unfortunately, this comprehensive system of training and development, which had gained worldwide recognition, is no more. Many lessons learned from previous disasters are being lost to today’s and future generations of firefighters. Richard J. Coates, hayling Island, hants.