By Eric King-
A London fire chief foolishly advised a resident of the doomed Greenfell fire to risk his life for his family by sending him back to the burning tower, despite believing he would have little chance of surviving by going back. Jason Oliff told of the “impossible decision” he took to advise a man to go back into the blaze to find his daughters, knowing that he “probably wouldn’t survive”.
In reality, this was no impossible decision because the firefighter should know that safety responsibilities lie with firemen in such circumstances, and not in the hands of one of the escaping residents of a deadly fire.
Oliff was acting in the capacity of chief officer on the day of the horrendous blaze that claimed nearly 80 lives in June last year. He was responsible for relaying information from 999 calls made by trapped residents to the aid rescue office. As he recalled trying to help a 999 call operator deal with a man trapped on the 21st floor with his heavily pregnant wife and three children, he said his decision came down to ”what if it was me”.
“I told the operator ‘tell him to go back and get his daughters’,” Oliff wrote in written evidence given to a public inquiry into the fire on 14 June last year.
Oliff continued: “I knew in saying this that, the male probably wouldn’t survive, but my thinking was that if it was me, I wouldn’t want to get out of that tower without my family and live with that for the rest of my life.”
Oliff’s evidence recalled how the emergency call taker had advised the man to “gather his family and make his way out of the tower” and how no firefighters were present in the smoke-filled stairwell of the west London tower to assist them.
“The operator had anticipated that there would be firefighter to assist,” Oliff wrote, before adding that he then told the operator to tell the family that firefighters were having difficulty getting past the 11th floor, but they needed to “keep going and try to reach safety”.
The male caller told the operator that he was having trouble breathing and a short time later, that he had become separated from his wife.: “The male didn’t know what to do, whether to continue or go back for his wife, the operator was asking me ‘What do I say to him?’.
“I considered the options, this was a highly stressful situation and I did not have the luxury of deliberating over the choices.”
Oliff said he thought it was “unlikely” that the man would be able to find his wife and still make it out of the tower with his children, so having re-confirmed he still had them with him, the operator was instructed to tell the man to “keep going”.
After descending a further few floors the man told the call taker he had now “lost contact” with his three children.“The operator could hear the male calling out for his children, he was now in extreme distress,” Oliff’s evidence reads.“The operator was also understandably distressed, she informed me that the male didn’t know what to do and again asked me ‘What do I tell him?’.“This was an impossible decision to make. There was no right or wrong answer I could give and I did not give this advice easily.
“I told the operator ‘tell him to go back and get his daughters’.”
Rescue fire fighters have already been criticised for telling residents to stay in the burning tower, rather than try to escape. Emergency situations like that of a fire can be very challenging, but this does not mean professional firefighters should not live up to professional standards in the delivery of their job.
Pic Credit: Greenfell Inquiry