The chief fire officer on the scene at the Grenfell Tower has broken down in tears after the inquiry was shown footage of onlookers screaming at the tower’s residents to “get out”.
Michael Dowden, a watch manager who was initially the most senior officer at the scene of the inferno on 14 June last year, earlier said it would have been “impossible” to carry out a full evacuation of the building in the first hours of the fire.
He also admitted he was too junior to cope with the size of the blaze, and said he experienced a ”sensory overload” while standing at the base of the inferno.
Mr Dowden explained how he and his colleagues had to battle with an inappropriate water supply system. They were left with no choice but trail a hose up the building’s single staircase to reach the upper floors – propping the doors open and leading to thick smoke spewing into the tower’s only escape route.
After footage of the fire was played Mr Dowden requested a ten-minute break while wiping away tears. It came after Monday’s session finished early because he was overcome with emotion.
Mr Dowden told the inquiry he was not qualified to oversee fires that needed more than four fire engines. Four were initially sent to the scene, but two more were called shortly after 1am.
A station manager rank is required to oversee the larger scale operation, but the station manager on duty was delayed in getting to the scene by road closures, according to a document submitted to the inquiry by the London Fire Brigade.
Mr Dowden told the hearing, which is chaired by Sir Martin Moore-Bick: “A watch manager B should be up to four pumping appliances, with a monitoring officer of a station manager rank. Once it goes beyond that – to six pumping appliances – the monitoring office at the rank of station manager will effectively take over. However, you have a degree of flexibility in that because of [problems with] officers getting to the incident ground.”
Mr Dowden also told the hearing on Tuesday that fire officers were unable to reach the top floors of the high-rise because the water pressure would be “almost non-existent”.
The inquiry previously heard the dry-rise system was used at Grenfell was not appropriate for a building so tall.
Building regulations advise the system – which requires the fire service to pump water from the ground through a hollow pipe – should not be used in buildings over 50 metres in height. Grenfell Tower was 67 metres tall.
Counsel to the inquiry Richard Millett QC asked Mr Dowden: “What would happen after you get above 50 metres?”
He replied: “The water supply would be almost non-existent.”
Mr Dowden told the inquiry the water pressure would also not allow firefighters to plug hoses into a water main on each floor, calling it an ”impossible task”.
This left them with “no choice” but to wedge a hose into the doorways to the building’s single staircase, leading to thick smoke seeping into the tower’s only escape route, he said.
Mr Miller asked: “Would the position of those outlets potentially affect the integrity of the single protected staircase in terms of whether it remained protected?
“Yes,” Mr Dowden responded.
Mr Miller pointed to London Fire Brigade policy 633, which warns firefighters against compromising escape routes.
Mr Dowden replied: “We only work with what we are given on the night. We have to have a water supply, we have to put water onto the fire, we can only work with the facilities that are given to us at that moment in time.”
Some residents of the tower fled their flats, only to later succumb to the toxic smoke that filled the stairway.
