Off Topic Horrific tower block fire in Kensington

Very true mate, Kings Cross being another good example. The fire in 1987 changed the underground for the better.

I don't know what the regs are on cladding.

 

That fire started on the 27th floor on an outside balcony when a carelessly discarded cigarette set clothing and towels alight. The fire also spread to inside the flat but didn't affect any other flat's. If Trellick Tower had the cladding it would've probably set alight the remaining four upper floors in the 31 storey building.

The usual procedure for fighting high rise fires is that you need a minimum of two appliances or crews. An aerial appliance would also attend and are limited to reaching the 10th floor depending on the pitch. The first crew will find a hydrant to supply the fire engine. The fire engine will then pump water to the dry rising main located at the foot of the tower. This supplies water to every floor.
The firefighting crew will make their way to the floor below the fire and form a bridgehead. They would usually do this by taking control of the fire lift. The equipment taken up will consist of ... 2 x breathing apparatus sets (BA,) a BA control board, firefighting equipment - hoses and a branch, and an adaptor to connect to the main, as well as a medical pack with oxygen, a defibrillator and breaking in gear.

While this is being set up control staff will mobilise further pumping appliances and specialist appliances such as control units and senior officers. Nine times out of ten these incidents are fairly routine. But you do get the odd occasion when the incident will dynamically change from the norm and firefighting personnel have to organically adapt.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...-careless-disposal-of-cigarette-a3518881.html

 

All three of the main parties are complicit in this tragic event. From Labour to the Lib Dem - Tory coalition to the Tories as a stand alone government. In 2005 Ed Balls deregulated the fire services act which put the onus on building owners and landlords to be responsible for their own fire safety certificates. One of the reasons for doing this was to strip back the fire service. This was evident in 2005 as the then Labour government closed Manchester Square Fire Station ( one of the 7/7 terrorist incidents would take place on that station's ground 4 weeks after the station was closed ) as well as the removal of a further 8 pumping appliances, resulting in 10 overall. The tories under Boris Johnson as the mayor of London closed 10 fire stations in January 2014.

There is also this from 2000 when Tony Blair was in power ... https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmselect/cmenvtra/389/38904.htm

Some of the key paragraphs from the above link ...

RESPONSE TO COMMITTEE'S RECOMMENDATIONS

Paragraph 18

The evidence we have received during this inquiry does not suggest that the majority of the external cladding systems currently in use in the UK poses a serious threat to life or property in the event of fire.

3. My Department supports this view and agrees that there is no evidence to suggest otherwise.

12. Analysis of 1995 UK fire statistics shows that although the risk of death from fire in flats (purpose-built and converted) was double that in houses, none of these deaths had been attributed to external cladding. Internal factors such as internal layout and lack of fire barriers in floors and ceilings were a major contributing factor. Accordingly, any assessment of a dwelling-based fire risk must address both external and internal factors. A new DETR Health and Safety Rating (which will replace the existing fitness standard) will be an important tool for this purpose because it assesses a range of measures linked to fire risks.

 

There's also this from 1999 when flames shot up 7 floors resulting in a fatal incident ... https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/cmselect/cmenvtra/741/9072003.htm

18 years later and lessons still not learnt.

 

The new Draeger BA sets last about 40 minutes ( dependant on the wearer's fitness and how hard they are working,) but there is an extended duration BA set. I can't remember how long that lasts ( 1 hour 30 mins? ) as I wasn't trained on it. It is worn by personnel who ride 'Fire Rescue Units' of which there are 10 in London and I was never stationed at one unless they needed a specialist driver for the shift.

The standard operational procedure is that you monitor your pressure gauge until you get to where you are tasked. You then have to calculate how much air you've used to get there. You then add that to your safety margin of 45 bar for your turnaround time which is when you have to make your way out.

To get to the top of Grenfell Tower would've been a tremendous feat and I doubt that someone of Mo Farah's fitness could even achieve that. Under normal circumstances the whole building wouldn't of been smoke logged from the ground floor up. So lets say there was a fire on the 20th floor, you would make your way to the bridgehead on the 19th floor and start up your BA from there in clean air before getting to work.

There is an account of the night's events from a firefighter who attended the incident. I'll have a search for it and post it later.

I'm not sure what the fixed installations were in that building. But by all accounts the stairwell which was the only means of escape seems to have been seriously compromised. You'd have thought that an AOV and a pressurised stairwell would be a minimum requirement of a building of that size in this day and age. Especially as it had just been refurbed.

 

A few perspectives from firefighters who tried to save life and put out the flames of this tragic incident ...

A firefighter from Whitechapel fire station's account of the events ...

The first ever female LFB commissioner's story ...

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...e-dany-cotton-grenfell-tower?CMP=share_btn_tw



And the anonymous firefighter's account I was referring to in response to sku's post above ...

THE following is an edited account of a Grenfell firefighter’s experience that was posted anonymously on the Save the UK Fire Service Facebook page.

I’M not sure if this is something that I should vocalise or whether or not it should be shared with the world but as I sit at home thinking about the other night the Grenfell Tower I feel like people might want to know how the incident went from the point of view of a firefighter who was sent inside, while the tower burned all around us and how after years of cuts to the service I work for, how I feel about what we do and how the past few years have been for us.

I’ve always been very proud of the job my colleagues and I do week in week out as part of the fire service. At times it’s hard, at others not so much, but the uncertainty of what might happen is always there.

Somethings I will miss out as they don’t need to be said, some I can’t say, other things I will simplify so hopefully everyone can understand them, I’m not looking for praise I just want to let you know we did all we could.

As always we were woken with a start, the lights came on and the automated tannoy voice started shouting our call signs.

It never fails to set your heat racing. Getting dressed I looked at the clock, I’d only lay down less than a hour ago. Time to see what we’ve got this time.

Down the pole to the trucks and it’s here I’m handed the call slip make pumps plenty ... what! No ...

That’s a big incident.

Wait ... I don’t know where this is ... it’s not on our ground.

We have to look it up and then we’re out the doors.

We arrived about 0120hrs but due to the way cars are parked in the streets and the fire engines that are arriving with us we couldn’t get closer than 4-5 streets away from the building. Other trucks were closer they would be setting up water ready for us.

We could see this was a bad one immediately. The sky was glowing. Leaving our truck we started quickly towards it.

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Flames and smoke engulf Grenfell Tower. Picture: AFP PHOTO
Picking up pace we are carrying our BA sets on our back. While making our way we are trying to read the conditions in front of us, trying to take in as much information as we could.

How big is the tower, where is the fire, where is the fire going next, how’s it behaving, how many flats are internally affected, how many people are in there?

We mustered outside the entrance. Parts of the building we already starting to fall down on to the surrounding area.

As we entered the building the fire on the outside was raging from the top to the bottom.

Walking up to the bridgehead on the third floor we were told to look at a floor plan that had been hastily drawn on a wall.

Then we received our brief ... 23rd floor, people stuck in their flat, go!

23rd floor? I repeat back ... giving the flat number I received to the Watch manager.

She confirms. I turned at told my BA, as the reality of how high we are going to try and go on a single cylinder of air.

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Firefighters attempting to control the enormous blaze. Picture: AFP PHOTO
Weighed down carrying 30kg+ of equipment, not including our firekit and breathing apparatus (BA), we passed through entry control handing in our tallies and confirming our brief.

We made our way up a crowed stairwell struggling to make progress, at times unable to pass because of the amount of people on the stairs. The stairwells were full of other BA crews bringing people down all in various states and conditions.

The smoke grew thicker with each floor we went up. No proper floor numbers on the stairwells after about the 5th floor made it hard to know where you were.

Someone before us had tried to write them on the wall with chinagraph pencil but this didn’t last long. The dirty smoke was covering the walls with a film of blackness

Around the 9th floor we lost all visibility and the heat was rising. Still we continued up and up through the blackness.

We reached what we believed to be the 19/20th floor but there was no way to tell.

It was here where we found a couple trying to find their way out, panicking, choking, blinded by the thick toxic air.

A quick gauge check showed us that the amount of floors we’d climbed had taken its toll, we were getting low on air. There’s no way we could make it to the 23rd and back to the bridgehead.

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A man is rescued from the Grenfell Tower by firefighters. Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images
The couple were shouting and screaming at us through the coughing, trying to tell us there were five more people on the floor above!

Now I had horrible decisions to make and a very short amount of time to make them.

In what I think would of been less than a minute these are all the things I had going through my head.

I will list a few of them for you.

All of which I needed to consider before making my decision:

Now that we’ve stopped and lost our rhythm on the stairs would we have enough air to leave this couple and try to reach the next floor?

Was the information we are getting from these people was correct. After all they are frantically panicking as they choke and suffer from the heat.

If we let them carry on down the stairs alone would they or could they find their own way out?

If we went up another floor would we actually find the five?

If we found them what state would they be in? Could the two of us get that many out, especially one or more are unconscious?

How would we have decided who to take?

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An exhausted firefighter.
Do we have enough air to make it back down to safety ourselves from where we are?

Should I be considering asking my BA partner, a “new mother”, to risk even more than she already has...?

Can I accept/live with the thought that saving two lives is better than taking the risk to go up and potentially saving no one?

Ahh!! Come on think...!

Am I doing enough?

Can I give more?

Am I forgetting any of my training ...?

Stop ... Breath ... Think ...

Why haven’t we seen another crew for so long?

Will another crew find them?

Are we really where we think we are?

The radios are playing up ... have we missed a important message.

Have all crews been pulled out?

Is the structure still safe?

Come on make a decision ... and make it quick these people are choking ...

Ok Ok Ok! Damn! Come on!! Think!! Right... ok

Decision made! I do a double check ... ask my partner ... Is it the right decision?

Ahhh. I’m doubting myself, ahhh! There’s no time for this!

Come on get on with it ... right! Make the call!

I try to radio down to entry control.

“Alpha Control Priority!”... No response ... “Alpha Control Priority!”

Still no response ... where are they ... what’s going on? “Alpha Control Priority!”

Did they answer? It’s hard to tell. The signal is all broken. I think I can just about hear something.

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The top stories of the building when flames and smoke engulfed them. Picture: AFL PHOTO
“Alpha Control Priority!”

Alpha control responds ...

“Go a head with priority over”

Are they talking to me? I can’t hear my call sign. Pass the message.

Alpha control. Two casualties found approx 20th floor, crew now escorting them down, request another BA team be committed to reach flat on 23rd floor. Further traffic.

Five casualties are reported apparently trying to make their way out on the floor above. Over

Alpha control.

“Message received.” Were they talking to me? It broke up again.

Ok we really need to get out. Let’s go! Grab my arm.

Taking a casualty each we set off. Within two floors both of us had been pushed down one of the flight of the stairs by our casualties. They are screaming at us that they couldn’t breath.

We try to reassure them. Stay with me. We are going to get you out. Please stay with me.

Down and down we go. I hear a shout from behind me from my partner. The female casualty has become unconscious. My partner is now having to drag her down alone. I can’t help at this time.

Two floors later we find another crew making their way out. One of them is carrying a little girl. I hand off my casualty to the firefighter who has a free set of hands, please take him out I shout, we’ll be right behind you.

I turn to go but with that he hands me something I’d not seen initially.

Wait! What! I’m handed a firefighters helmet!

This can’t be good! Why does he have this? Where is the firefighter it belongs too!

As I turn round and go back up one turn of the stairs I see him.

He’s missing his helmet but he’s with my BA partner. He’s got no helmet and no breathing apparatus. Are you ok? Where’s your BA set!?

He’s given it to a casualty. He’s coughing as he tells us. He’s delirious from the heat and smoke.

Still he tries to help carry the casualty! Helping others is still his first thought.

I shout at him: get down those stairs, get down to the bridgehead!

I take the casualty’s arms. My BA partner has her legs. We start down again. Found and round we go, hear the noise of crews working hard around us. There are still crews going up the stairs past us. My air is running low.

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Flames engulfing the 24-storey block of flats in west London.
Turning a corner we see a white helmet. It’s a watch manager in the stairwell. We’ve reach the bridgehead. It’s moved again. It’s now up on the 5th floor.

My partner takes the firefighter with no BA in to the 5th floor lobby to administer oxygen.

The watch manager takes the casualty’s legs from her.

Walking backwards down another five floors and finally I’m on the ground floor but I can’t stop yet. I hand the casualty over. Then I’m off back up those stairs to the 5th floor.

Reaching entry control, now finally I can shut my set down and I take my mask off. Hoping for a deep breath of clean air. Ah nope!

It’s not clean air in here. I suck in lung full of light-ish smoke. It makes me cough and retch.

Still it’s clean enough to breath I guess. It’s better than the air higher up.

With my tally collected I find my BA partner. She’s with the firefighter we found and she’s administering him oxygen. We’re off. We take him down and out with us.

As we get outside we are desperate for a drink of water, collapsing on the grass by the leisure centre. Someone see us and throws us some water. I drink it straight down, and its gone so fast it barely touches the thirst I have.


As I look up colleagues are all around us, tunics off, their t-shirts soaked through with sweat, no one really able to talk.

All of us sat there looking at the building we’ve just come out of. It’s worse now! The fire is everywhere and fierce!

It’s hard to comprehend we were just in there.

We see a man in a high window trapped in his flat, we can hear the radio traffic. They know he’s there but no one can get to him ... but crews are working hard trying to help him.

He’s there for a long time disappearing then coming back.

Slowly we catch our breath. We service our BA sets, new oxygen cylinders on them, we are ready to go again.

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Members of the emergency services carrying oxygen tanks. Picture: AFP PHOTO
Recovering I go to find more water. At a cordon a woman pleads with me ... crying and pushing her phone at me she says she has her friend on line.

Her and her baby are trapped on the 11th floor.

It throws me ... I struggle to reply ... I look across at a police officer. I point at him and tell her he will take her to the people who will take her friends information and pass it on to the crews inside. Stay on the phone with her I say. Tell her not to give up. We are still coming. We are still getting to people, I promise.

No time to stop, don’t get distracted. I’ve got to get a drink and get back to it.

Some people are given jobs while others have to wait to be tasked with going back inside.

Some time later we are all grouped together waiting for news. A senior officer is telling us he knows we’ve already broken all the policies we have. He knows the risks we’ve taken but that’s not enough — we are going to have to take more. There are still a lot more people who need us.

He says he’s going ask us to do things that would normally be unimaginable. To put our lives at risk even more than we already have.

Everyone is looking round at each other listening to this officer try to motivate us into action again. He didn’t need to though. We are ready for it! This is what we train for.

Those colleagues who a little while ago were collapsed and broken on the grass from their first entry are back up, ready, standing in full kit waiting for their orders to go in again.

Lots of things happened during the time I was outside. Some people were rescued alive, some unfortunately weren’t. People jumped, a mother threw a baby from a floor high up, caught by a complete stranger arms just so she could get it away from the fire.

Hour after hour my colleagues were pushing themselves above and beyond what you’d think was humanly possible.

As the light broke and trucks with fresh crews arrived, those of us who were there early on were starting to be swapped over. We were told to find our crews and go to the debrief but no one was wanting to leave. Each and every one willing to give more, but eventually we all had to leave the scene.

So 19 hours after starting our night shift the members of Red Watch made it back to the Fire Station.

Time to try and rest ... in four hours time we will be on duty again.

I shower, but the smell of smoke won’t go away. I wash three times and give up.

I’m beyond tired but I can’t sleep ... there’s to much going on in my head.

I think I need a drink! I go out to the local pub with colleagues. I order a shandy — I’m back on duty soon.

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Queen Elizabeth II thanks firefighters during a visit to the Westway Sports Centre which is providing temporary shelter for those who have been made homeless in the Grenfell Tower disaster. Picture: AFP PHOTO
As we sat with our drinks we don’t really talk. Sitting in almost complete silence, each lost in thought trying to begin to process everything that’s happened. Yet we are aware of the people all around us, laughing and joking with friends, enjoying their drinks in the sun. Oblivious to what we’ve seen, unaware of what we’ve been doing all night.

I’ve no appetite but I know I need to eat. We go to and get some food but it’s hard to concentrate.

We go back to the fire station, there’s no time to get home. I find a bed in the dorm room and eventually manage 45 minutes sleep before I wake up. Wash my face, get dressed and I’m ready to report for roll call, ready to do it all again.

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Prince William meeting firefighters at the Westway Sports Centre. Picture: Getty Images
After all that I want to ask you to do this ... take a few moments out of your day to really consider the sacrifices the men and women of the emergency services are willing to make to protect you, your loved ones and the local communities we serve.

You will see that it’s not about money or fame we do it because we genuinely care about serving you.

I’m off to see my family and friends now. I might talk to them about it if I can, but then again I might not. I’m not sure they need to know what’s in my head just yet. Maybe once I’ve made sense of it I will.


Here's one more, I knew this lads dad who's mentioned in the article ...

Gibraltarian hero in dramatic rescue from 21st floor of Grenfell Tower inferno

One of the first rescuers to race into the Grenfell Tower inferno this week was a Gibraltarian third-generation firefighter who helped save a woman from a flat on the 21st floor.
Russell Gonzalez, 31, was part of a four-man search and rescue team wearing breathing apparatus and tasked with dashing to the top floors in a bid to save people trapped there.
With fire and smoke sweeping through the building, the team faced extreme heat and arduous conditions as they climbed floor after floor until they came across the woman.
Against all the odds, they managed to carry her down alive to safety from the upper levels of the 24-storey block.

Outside, they rested for an hour before racing back into the burning building.
As this edition went to press, the woman they saved was the highest known rescue of the night.
This act of incredible bravery was recounted yesterday by Russell’s father Albert Gonzalez, himself a retired firefighter who served for 30 years in the London Fire Brigade and whose own father, the late Adolfo ‘Popo’ Gonzalez, served with the City Fire Brigade in Gibraltar.

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His voice laced with emotion, Albert told how he had switched on the television on Wednesday morning to see Grenfell Tower covered in flames and billowing smoke.
This was a building he knew well, having been stationed in the area for several years.
“I knew this building like the back of my hand,” he said.
His initial thoughts were professional as he digested the dramatic images of the blaze.
But he immediately realised too that his son, who was based in Paddington Fire Station, would have been despatched to the fire.
Russell was trained in the use of extended duration breathing apparatus, which allows firefighters to stay inside burning buildings for longer.

He would have been tasked with searching the top floors of the building, one of the most dangerous jobs that night.
As Albert viewed the images of Grenfell Tower on the morning news, he feared the worst for his son.
“When I saw those images, I thought to myself: ‘If he’s in there, he’s dead’,” he said, his voice trembling with emotion.
“I have never in my 30 years as a fire fighter seen a fire like that.”
The next hour was a painful wait as Albert used social media and the network of retired firefighters to make contact with active colleagues.
He was finally able to establish that all rescuers were accounted for and, not long after that, received news directly from Russell that he was safe.
Then came the facts of the incredible rescue from the 21st floor of Grenfell Tower.
“My fear and anxiety turned to overwhelming pride,” Albert said.
“I talked about this with my old colleagues and we know how hard that rescue must have been.”
“They must have gone through temperatures of over 1000 degrees Celsius.”
“To get to the 21st floor is a remarkable achievement, but to then find someone alive and carry her down between four of them, it’s a miracle.”

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London’s firefighters have been praised as heroes for their response to the fire.
Yesterday London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said the tough conditions and shocking scenes they faced had traumatised many of them.
London Fire Brigade said more than 200 firefighters and 40 fire engines attended the scene after the blaze ripped through the 24-storey block in west London, from the second floor upwards.
She told Sky News: “They were in and out of that building, committing time after time to rescue the people we knew were in there. There was never any hesitation.”
“As the commissioner of the London Fire Brigade I was truly anxious for a long time about the safety of the building and my firefighters in there, but they were never going to stop until they physically could not get in there anymore.”
“The thing that worries me going forward is the psychological effect. A lot of my firefighters yesterday experienced things they have never seen before.”
“I spoke to some people who were truly distressed – not least because they knew there were people still in there and they were battling through the heat to get there.”
“What happened [on Wednesday] truly traumatised a lot of people.”
The firefighters “were in fear of their own lives” as they went into the building which was “alight from top to bottom”, according to Ms Cotton.
Yesterday, Albert said his son Russell and his crew acted in the finest traditions of The London Fire Brigade.
“Russell’s Gibraltar ancestry is well known in the Brigade as he is an extremely proud Gibraltarian and on the night of the fire he did his firefighting family, The London Fire Brigade and Gibraltar proud,” he said.
“Well done Russell and all those who fought the inferno on that night.”

 

http://chronicle.gi/2017/06/gibralt...ue-from-21st-floor-of-grenfell-tower-inferno/

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/distraught-firefighter-forced-make-impossible-10648450