Firefighters are not trained to lead people to safety through the type of toxic conditions they faced in the Grenfell Tower fire, an officer who attended the blaze has said.
Giving evidence to the official inquiry into the disaster, Glynn Williams, a firefighter for 18 years, said: “The FSG [fire service guidance] training we receive teaches how to coordinate a targeted rescue to people that are unable to evacuate. We are trained to rescue that person and bring them into a safe environment. We do not receive any training that involves taking a person through a toxic environment 20-plus floors high, and bring them to a safe environment on ground level.”
An expert report by Dr Barbara Lane, the leader of fire safety engineering at Arup, published in the second week of the inquiry, found that the tower’s cladding produced toxic smoke that slowed down the firefighters because they had to wear breathing apparatus and “the ultimate consequence was a disproportionately high loss of life”.
In his written statement, Williams said: “It looked as if gases wereemitting from the building due to the heat. I have seen fire reacting to gases under pressure before but not to this scale.”
Williams was night duty watch manager at Fulham fire station when the fire broke out. He and his crew arrived at the scene of the incident at 1.50am.
His statement, which is one of dozens being read as part of evidence to the inquiry, conveyed the sense of confusion and horror among firefighters.
“There was a woman carrying a little boy,” he said. “As the woman walked passed me crying, I asked them where the rest of their family were, to which the little boy said, ‘All dead’.”
Williams gave his helmet to a little girl being carried out in her pyjamas to protect her from falling debris. “She looked to be in shock as her eyes were wide open,” he said.
Williams was coordinating the FSG [Fire Survival Guidance] calls, which specify which people need rescuing and their whereabouts. He described the volume as unmanageable, with duplicate information coming in, and details about those who had been rescued difficult to glean. He said there was “a breakdown in communication between the management within the foyer”.
Williams suggested the absence of a working fire lift, which meant the stairwell was congested, hampered the rescue operation.
He said another stairwell, an operating fire lift, a working mechanical smoke extraction unit, a protected stairwell, sufficient fire doors and installation of sprinklers would all have assisted firefighters.
“The Grenfell Tower had a massive emotional impact on me and shortly after the incident I started to feel really angry that I did not go in and rescue someone,” he said. “When I was asleep I started to have visualisations of the little girl’s face who I had given my helmet to.”
