Reacting to reports out of today's (4 June) hearings at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said:
“It is clear that from the earliest accounts of the night that firefighters faced an unprecedented catastrophe and they responded by going above and beyond the call of duty. The Fire Brigades Union hopes the Grenfell Tower inquiry, of which we are a core participant, investigates the ‘stay put’ policy forensically. There are difficult and complex issues to be addressed.
“Tower blocks are designed so if a fire breaks out in a property, the blaze can be held there for a length of time, allowing fire crews to respond. This is called compartmentation. It clearly failed at Grenfell Tower. The “stay put” policy may well have to be changed, particularly after this failure of compartmentation at Grenfell, but we will not prejudge the inquiry.
“I am entirely confident that those taking emergency calls, the firefighters and fire officers attending the incident did their utmost on the night and at the incident to save as many lives as they could. Regrettably, they operated in an impossible situation because the fire was on such an unprecedented scale.”
