Responding to comments made by Andrew O’Hagan on the Today programme (30 May) Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), said:
“The firefighters who responded to the Grenfell Tower fire, the emergency fire control operators who took dreadfully distressing calls, acted with courage, professionalism and dedication rescuing many people. Without them, there would have been far more deaths. It is a source of deep sadness that they were unable to rescue more.
“Firefighters faced an unprecedented catastrophe on that night and they responded by going above and beyond the call of duty. They don’t deserve, and they can do without, armchair critics like the writer Andrew O’Hagan, editor at large of the London Review of Books, telling them "the firefighting effort wasn't all that it could have been”. He seems to have pre-judged the evidence which is due to be heard at the public inquiry. The FBU will not pre-judge the inquiry before it has heard the evidence on this, and we don’t think pundits should either.”
