Fire chief tells BBC: Grenfell residents are being asked to ‘stay there too long’

Residents of Grenfell Tower were told to “stay there too long” during the fire that destroyed the building, London Fire Brigade (LFB) chief Andy Roe told the BBC.

However, Mr Roe, who revoked the stay-at-home recommendation minutes after taking command on the ground, acknowledged that the measure “would have influenced people’s decision-making”.

72 people died in the fire in the high-rise building in west London, which broke out in the early hours of June 14, 2017.

A public inquiry has been gathering evidence into the causes of the fire and the response since September 2017. The final report is due to be published next month.

Shortly before 1:00 a.m., a fire broke out in the kitchen of an apartment on the fourth floor of a 23-story high-rise building in North Kensington.

The fire was reported and LFB emergency call operators advised residents not directly affected by fire, heat or smoke to remain in their homes until help arrived. However, as they were giving this advice, the fire quickly spread.

The effectiveness of the “stay put” rule – which still applies in most high-rise buildings in the event of a fire – depends on the proper construction of the building. The rules should prevent the spread of fire from one apartment to another for at least 60 minutes.

This was not the case with Grenfell Tower. During a refurbishment, combustible cladding and insulation were added to the outside of the building and in less than 20 minutes the fire, fed by the combustible materials, climbed 19 floors to the top of the tower.

The Grenfell Tower investigation has already found that “many more lives” could probably have been saved if emergency management had asked residents to evacuate an hour earlier.

In conversation with the BBC podcast Grenfell: A catastrophe London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe – deputy fire commissioner at the time of the fire – spoke of his disbelief and horror when he arrived at the scene at 2.30am and found three sides of the building ablaze.

“It was a shock – people were screaming,” Mr Roe said. “I could look into the building and see that the fire was well inside. People were hanging out of the windows. Unbelievable… people were lying on the ground too.”

“I was wearing my firefighter uniform and people stopped me and said, ‘What’s going on? My mother is in there, my brothers and sisters are in there.'”

As the most senior officer on the scene, Mr Roe took command of the incident and gave the order to lift the ‘stay put’ rule at 2.47am – one hour and 53 minutes after the first emergency call. From then on, anyone calling 999 was told to leave the building.

“Out of respect for the families, I have to say that people have been advised not to stay there too long,” Mr Roe said.

The decision to withdraw the stay-at-home recommendation was “an easy one,” he said, but earlier in the night it would have been even more difficult because of the risks associated with evacuating people through smoke-filled stairwells.

Munira Mahmoud, a Grenfell resident who left the tower with her children on the night of the fire, last spoke to her friend Rania Ibrahim, who lived on the 23rd floor, at around 3am.

The staff at the operations center had advised Rania that “the apartment is the safest place for you at the moment” – and she had decided to stay there.

Munira urged Rania to leave the tower, but Rania said she would not survive. Rania was coughing and the tower’s hallways and stairwells were now filled with thick black smoke.

Rania Ibrahim and her two daughters, Hania, 3 years old, and Fethia, 4 years old, died in their apartment.

Regarding the London Fire Brigade’s recommendation to Grenfell Tower residents to stay in their homes, Roe told the BBC: “We all talk about it in hindsight, but we know that that advice would have influenced people’s decision.”

“It would just be so wrong to the families and those who lost their lives not to acknowledge that.”

Listen Grenfell: A catastrophe on BBC Sounds.

Missed opportunities, ignored warnings and the failure of a state to protect its citizens. A fire in West London that killed 72 people shows us how Britain works – and how it doesn’t.