Grenfell Inquiry day 34: water from hose ‘too weak’ to reach flames

Day 34

The first firefighter to give evidence today, watch manager Stuart Beale was working at battling the blaze from outside the tower, on a platform at the top of a ladder.

But the water from his hose came out so weakly it did not even reach the building – which it was too dangerous to get too close to due to falling molten debris. This was particularly exacerbated by the ladder being stuck on its ‘slow speed’ setting which made it difficult to move out of danger.

He said in his witness statement: “As we were not able to get close enough to rescue anyone from their window I just wanted to get water on the building to restrict the fire’s movement and save as many lives as we could.

“Once in position it soon became apparent that the [platform] did not have the required water pressure needed. It should use 2,500 litres per minute but the monitors showed that we only had an output of 383 litres per minute.”

Mr Beale was followed onto the stand by firefighter Christopher Batcheldor, who was attempting rescue missions within the tower.

Mr Batcheldor described meeting a firefighter at the brigade’s centre of operations inside the tower. He was carrying a small girl, whom Mr Batcheldor took and carried out of the building.

“She had soot round her mouth and eyes,” Mr Batcheldor said. “I was trying to wash it off with a bottle of water I picked up off the floor.”

“She was crying out, ‘I’ve left my mum, my dad, my brother. They’re in there, I’ve left them in there, I’ve left them behind.’ When we eventually came to the paramedic area, they were crying on a large piece of tarpaulin. She just pointed at them, and they came and grabbed her off me. Beautiful.”

Mr Batcheldor, with tears in his eyes, also described speaking on the phone to a woman in the tower – Zainab Deen – whom he told to “carry on fighting” after her son died in the flat while they were on the phone.

He handed the phone to Ms Deen’s brother, Francis, who was outside the flat with him, telling him to tell her he loved her, then took it back and asked his watch manager whether firefighters would reach her soon.

He told the inquiry: “For about 10 minutes of that phonecall, the line was quiet. She’d stopped coughing. I stayed on the line in case she could still hear me. It wasn’t until 10 minutes had passed that I got confirmation that she had passed away from what I could hear, and the phone went silent again completely.”

Ms Deen, it transpires, had been moved by firefighters from her original flat into this flat, something Mr Batcheldor revealed he was not told on the phone.

Following Mr Batcheldor’s evidence, judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick announced that because witnesses’ evidence had taken longer to hear than had been anticipated, firefighters will continue to give evidence in September after the inquiry’s summer break.

As the day’s proceedings appeared to be drawing to a close, Michael Mansfield, a lawyer representing some survivors, suggested that Sir Martin use the opportunity of the summer break to issue recommendations to make other tower blocks safe.