Four weeks on and the devastation caused by the Grenfell Tower fire is still unfolding. The demands on my team have been such that only now, sat here at midnight, my house silent but my brain still buzzing, do I have time to reflect on all that has happened.
The communication challenges are endless and with every new issue, the potential to confuse people with information overload is in itself a fire safety concern.
We know that at least 80 people are feared to have died in the Grenfell Tower fire. We know we have never experienced a fire like this before. A national programme to test aluminium composite material cladding on buildings is being carried out by the government and one London local authority has evacuated hundreds of residents to ensure essential building safety measures are in place. We know there is a demand for answers and that until the fire has been officially investigated we face a race against unverified information being reported. The word “unprecedented” has never felt so appropriate.
The incident has been a considerable communications challenge from the moment the duty press officer took that first alarming phone call. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are as a communications professional or how hard you prepare to manage major incidents, the reality of such an awful situation happening in real time is stomach-churning.
Our priority was to provide accurate information as quickly as possible about what was happening, whether people were injured, whether firefighters were safe, and what level of resource was on site. These were some of the questions we were asking in preparation for the wave of international media interest we knew would ensue.
Then there was the urgent need for other agencies to be informed, messaging coordinated and facts released properly and confirmed by the correct organisation.
While most of the country slept and 24-hour news channels were realising the severity of the fire, the communications team was pulling together initial media statements and posting updates on social media, arriving on site to manage the media interest and joining operational meetings at brigade headquarters to understand what was going on and what facts could be shared.
Day one was hard and long, filled with updates confirming the severity of the fire and tragic loss of life, delivered to a media cordon by a London fire commissioner who had been in the post less than six months. As well as speculation spreading on the number of people involved, there was concern that the tower was unstable and might collapse.
The next day, we needed to explain why “staying put” was usually the safest advice to follow, based on how most fires in high-rise buildings were contained.
The first weekend was a haze of relentless media interest, including demands to interview firefighters who hadn’t had time to provide official statements, let alone process what they had been through.
Just a week after the blaze we were reissuing essential white goods safety advice after it was confirmed the fire had started in a fridge freezer.
As with all major incidents, endless questions continue to be asked, most of which can only be answered by the police investigation and public inquiry. We have tried to explain fire safety legislation and that housing providers are responsible for making or declaring a building safe, not the London fire brigade. Many people still haven’t caught up with the fact that fire safety certificates issued by fire and rescue services are a thing of the past and that for more than a decade, there has been a “responsible person” who has been held legally accountable for fire safety.
Opportunities to clarify the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (2005) have been taken as often and sensitively as possible, and information and advice has been reissued. Our animations explaining what to do if there is a fire inside your home and the actions to take if there is a fire elsewhere in the building have been widely shared on social media. If anything can come of this tragedy immediately, it is that people buy or test smoke alarms, think about their escape plans and consider advice that is, sadly, all too often ignored.
We have also, where possible, verified information about how the London fire brigade responded to the fire. So many staff from different departments at the brigade support the response to disasters such as the Grenfell Tower fire. Control staff who took many calls that night and firefighters, many of whom are specially trained in urban search and rescue, are rightfully receiving the praise and recognition they deserve. The fire investigation team has been involved since day one, with a later focus on fire inspecting officers, who have been working tirelessly with housing providers and local authorities.
The professionalism of all the emergency services and partner agencies involved must also be recognised, including our colleagues in other communications teams, who work so hard.
My team not only managed the brigade’s communications on this horrific incident, but also the terrorist attacks in Westminster, London Bridge and Borough Market as well as the attack just five days later in Finsbury Park.
Perhaps not enough is known about the specialist fire and rescue resources involved in those incidents too, but having spent a number of nights awake and working alongside my on-call colleagues, I can tell you that we have been doing all we can to provide accurate media updates, event management, public affairs, staff communications and as much public information as possible to demonstrate everything the brigade has done and is doing to help affected communities.
Nobody working at the fire brigade will ever forget this terrible fire. Our thoughts remain with all those affected and especially the families and loved ones of those missing or confirmed dead.
Glenn Sebright is head of communications at the London fire brigade. This article was originally published on the Comms2point0 site and is republished with permission.
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