Grenfell survivors demand prosecution of top fire brigade officers after damning inquiry report

‘If we were helped properly, he would be here today, and I wouldn’t be telling this story,’ says Paulos Tekle, whose five-year-old son Isaac perished in the fire

Survivors of the Grenfell fire have said the feel “let down” by the advice they were given by firefighters on the night of the blaze and called for senior officers to be prosecuted after the first report of the inquiry revealed shortcomings on behalf of the fire service.

In the wake of the long-awaited investigation into what led to the tragedy, victims also expressed concern that their voices are being “drowned out” of the inquiry process while those in authority “blame each other” for what went wrong.

In a document spanning around 1,000 pages, chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick finds that fewer people may have died in the fire if the London Fire Brigade had not stuck so rigidly to its “stay put” policy and evacuated people instead.

It also concludes that the tower’s cladding failed to comply with building regulations, saying the external walls “actively promoted” the spread of the fire and pointing to “compelling evidence” that regulations were flouted during the refurbishment of the tower.

The report highlights problems with the structure of the block despite the fact that this was not intended to be a part of phase 1 – with Sir Martin saying it would be an “affront to common sense” not to address this.

But speaking after the report was published, survivors focused on the fire brigade’s conduct, giving distressing accounts of their escape from the blaze, and communicating their belief that their loved ones could have been saved had they not been advised to “stay put” in their flats.

Paulos Tekle, whose son Isaac, aged five, died after they were separated as they fled their 18th-floor flat, said he believed that had they not been advised by firefighters not to evacuate, his child would still be alive.

“A firefighter came to our door, knocked on our door, and advised us to stay. He left us. We were inside. My friend on the other side of the block kept advising us to leave,” he said.

“We believed the firefighter who told us to stay. So we stayed. We were hoping they would save us because we trusted them.”

The family were eventually instructed to evacuate, but Isaac became separated from them in the smoke-filled stairwell.

Mr Tekle added: “Every single minute now, I’m thinking of that. I was desperate at that time. If we were helped properly, he would be here today, and I wouldn’t be telling this story.”

Shah Aghlani, whose disabled mother Sakina Afrasehabi and aunt Fatima Afrasehabi perished in the fire, said he did not want individual firefighters who “risked their lives” to be prosecuted, but that “cultural change” was needed within the London Fire Brigade to prevent a repeat of Grenfell.

“It was the commanders in control, and politicians, who allowed this to happen. Seventy people who died were waiting desperately to be rescued. But nobody showed up. The last thing I was hearing from my aunt was, where are the firefighters?

He called on the LFB to “put their hands up and accept responsibility”, and called for a ”cultural change” within the brigade as well as changes in planning, training and delivery of service.

Mr Aghlani’s sister Nazanin said said senior officers in the LFB should be prosecuted, arguing that they should be treated as “professionals not heroes”.

She added: “I’m not saying individual firefighters should be. They do a good job, bless them, and they don’t get paid that well. But senior firefighters should be held to account.

Grenfell survivors said they felt ‘let down’ by the fire brigade’s response to the blaze (May Bulman)

“They need to train firefighters better, but it’s also the attitude and the culture. When you have senior staff saying they wouldn’t have done anything different, it’s as though there’s no care to change.”

Hamid Ali Jafari​, whose elderly father, Ali Yawar Jafari, passed away after getting into a lift in an attempt to escape from the block, said he felt the authorities were “hiding the truth”.

“Everyone is making excuses, blaming each other. While they are blaming each other, who do I go to to find answers? I don’t know why people are hiding the truth,” he said.

“They have no idea what they have done to us. I’ve lost my life. My family, we’ve lost our happiness. We’ve lost our dreams. We can’t move on with our lives. They should sit and think about how they would feel if it happened to them.”

In the report, Sir Martin concludes that LFB had failed to educate its firefighters in the dangers associated with combustible cladding systems, and also failed to visit the block following the refurbishment to ensure the risk assessment was accurate and up to date.

Condemning the brigade’s “stay put” policy, it says this meant dozens of people stayed inside the building rather than evacuating, describing the measure as an “article of faith” within the LFB, “so powerful that to depart from it was to all intents and purposes unthinkable”.

The LFB has been defended by politicians who argue that it is unfair to pin the blame on the fire service, while firefighters said they felt “scapegoated” by ministers.

Ricky Nuttal, a firefighter with 14 years of experience who tackled the Grenfell blaze, said he had “expected to be let down and made a scapegoat by the government”, but that it still “hurts”.

“Today is the first time in my 15 year career as a firefighter when I feel like quitting. I feel like everything I stand for, and everything I am, is being questioned and accused and blamed,” Mr Nuttal said.

“Unless you do my job, or one similar, it is unlikely that you will ever feel the pain I feel today, as my actions on the most horrific night of my life are brought into question and terms like corporate manslaughter are being discussed.”

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott criticised the inquiry for focusing on the fire brigade’s response before investigating the cladding on the block, saying: “The sequence of these reports was ill-conceived. Trying to explain the events of that terrible night without examining key issues about how we got there was mistaken.”

Ms Abbott added that pinning the blame on the fire brigade for its “stay put” policy was “incorrect”, highlighting that the government promised in 2014, following the Lakanal House fire in Southwark, to review the policy, but that this did not happen.

Lord Porter, building safety spokesman at the Local Government Association, echoed her concerns, saying​ the inquiry had made a “fundamental error” by examining the response to the fire before examining its causes.

“The consequence of this is to scapegoat the fire service while those responsible for the fire have yet to be exposed or held to account,” he added.

Deborah Coles, executive director of charity INQUEST, said the residents of Grenfell Tower were “catastrophically failed before, during and after the fire”, and that previous recommendations following the Lakanal House fire been implemented, those who perished in the blaze “may have been safe”.

In a letter to the prime minister published alongside the report, Sir Martin said “urgent action” was required from the government to implement his recommendations for improving fire safety in residential high-rise buildings "without delay”.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Boris Johnson said it was “absolutely vital” that individuals and organisations were held to account for the errors highlighted by the inquiry.

He also pledged that ministers would “legislate accordingly” on the report’s recommendation that responsibility for fire safety should be taken on by central government.​