The firefighter who led the initial response to the Grenfell Tower fire did not consider a full evacuation of the tower even when residents emerged coughing and with blackened faces, the public inquiry into the disaster has heard.
Watch manager Michael Dowden, a veteran firefighter with 14 years experience, said he was “consumed” by the fast-moving events and it was not clear to him that the fire had broken out of flat 16 and spread to other apartments in the building.
In a high-rise fire, a stay-put policy has failed when a fire spreads beyond the compartment of origin.
“I don’t remember having a conscious thought in terms of 'this has spread internally beyond the compartment,' I think because I was so consumed in terms of what was happening on the external of the building with the fire spread,” he said.
He recalled a father and son coming out of the tower covered in soot who appeared to be suffering the effects of fire inhalation.
Asked if the sight made him consider evacuation, he said: “For me as an incident commander, the challenge we faced, an almost impossible situation trying to evacuate that building at that time with the resources in attendance. It is something I still search for today.”
Richard Millett QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked if he considered telling the control room of what he had seen, so they could change the survival advice to emergency callers inside the tower.
He replied: “I have no thought at that moment in time, but from being an incident commander at that fire, at that moment in time, being witness to what was happening and unfolding in front of me – I had never operated at that level before.
“I was making decisions to the best of my ability with all good intentions to try to successfully resolve that incident and that was a decision I didn’t take at this time.”
Wednesday was Mr Dowden’s third day of giving evidence to the inquiry. On Tuesday, he broke down while giving evidence, and had to request a break.
