London firefighters are to be trained how to carry out mass evacuations in Grenfell Tower-style blazes, the capital’s new fire commissioner has revealed.
All station commanders and more senior frontline officers are also undergoing retraining with some junior commanders already stood down from duty until they can be “revalidated”, said Andy Roe, the new leader of the London Fire Brigade.
He added: “Change will start as of January 1, when I assume the position of commissioner.”
He was unable to say when the brigade would be “fit for purpose”.
This week the fire inspectorate said LFB “requires improvement”.
It revealed that commanders were not required to pass a training course and fire engine drivers had gone up to 20 years without having their driving abilities assessed despite a high number of blue-light crashes.
Last month the public inquiry into Grenfell criticised the brigade for failing to improve quickly enough after the 2017 blaze that claimed 72 lives.
A key error was the failure of commanders on the ground — prior to Mr Roe’s arrival on the scene — to rescind the “stay put” policy that meant trapped residents were told by 999 call handlers to stay in their flats and await rescue.
Mr Roe, appearing before a City Hall panel this week, said: “In the new year we will be running a series of fire survival guidance training exercises... to practice emergency evacuation, rescue and mass rescue, with a particular focus on how we conduct fire survival guidance passage of messages between control [the 999 call handlers] and our incident commanders.”
Fire commanders this week began receiving “the first of many” practical and theoretical sessions on handling incidents in high-rise buildings.
