Grenfell firefighter recalls hanging on 'for dear life' from flat 16 window in desperate bid to stop flames rising

Tom Powell28 June 2018

One of the first firefighters to arrive at Grenfell Tower has described how he dangled from a fourth floor window while clinging to his colleague in a bid to put out rapidly rising flames.

Charles Batterbee and Daniel Brown had extinguished the initial kitchen fire in flat 16 before noticing it had spread to the outside of the building.

Mr Batterbee, a crew manager, said he held on to Mr Brown’s legs as he hung out the window and directed his hose up the side of the tower block.

"I'm holding on to him for dear life," he told the Grenfell public inquiry on Thursday. "I'm digging my hips into the counter so we don't both go together.”

Charles Batterbee, the first firefighter to enter flat 16, relived his actions at the inquiry into the inferno
PA

As the flames rapidly spread up the building, he said the fire developing inferno became “like a war zone”, with burning debris raining down at a speed that could easily kill a person.

Mr Batterbee became upset and requested a break after thermal imaging footage of his entry to Flat 16 with Mr Brown was shown to the hearing at Holborn Bars.

Flames shoot up the side of the tower on the night of the fire
Jeremy Selwyn

But after a short adjournment he remained composed as he talked counsel to the inquiry Richard Millett QC through the video and his actions that night.

He said: "I remember the intensity of the flame. I can only describe it as huge balls of flame falling down along with debris; it didn't stop; it was violent ... We kept hitting it with water but again it was having no bearing on the fire."

When he eventually returned to the outside of the building, he was "completely shocked" at how far flames had spread.

The first firefighters enter Grenfell Tower on the night of the devastating blaze

The statement said: "A large quantity of debris began to fall at a pace that I didn't expect. I remember seeing the fire travelling up the centre of the external east face of the building.

"It became too dangerous to stay where we were and that close to the base of the tower.

"The debris that was coming down were big and came down at a speed that could quite easily kill a person."

A jet of water was used to target the blaze from the outside, but it was futile, with the flames now making a "fizzing sound".

"It was as though someone had poured an accelerant down the side of building. Nothing I tried worked," Mr Batterbee said.

Behailu Kebede, 45, leaving Grenfell Tower barefoot
Grenfell Inquiry

During the first hour of the fire, watch manager Michael Dowden was the incident commander, despite being considerably too junior in rank to marshal a 25-pump response.

The officer's lack of training in combating high-rise fires was laid bare during three days of evidence - and was commented upon in his colleague's statement.

Mr Batterbee said: "He was still wearing the Incident Commander (IC) tabard, I remember thinking 'why was he still in charge?' We must have been at Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) levels or Assistant Commissioner (AC) levels by this time."

His vivid account revealed that fire crews were forced to smash through windows on the west face of the tower to use as an improvised entrance, due to the falling debris.

It continued: "The whole thing was hell, it was like a war zone. The noise was so loud with the fire, the constantly falling debris and the pumps going.

"There were times during the night when I was far enough away carrying out a task, where I would be able to see the entirety of the Tower and every time it was a hundred times worse than the time before.

"It shouldn't have happened. It completely spread from being one face alight to eventually all faces alight. At one point, it looked like a massive line of fire had gone up and over the top of the building and down the West side. We had gone from a fire in a building to a building on fire."

Firefighters were also needing medical assistance as the inferno continued to rage, Mr Batterbee wrote.

He described finding a colleague on the floor of the lobby in "a semi-unconscious state at the base of the stairs".

Mr Batterbee wrote: "(Watch manager) O'Keefe shouted, "Medic!" A few of us repeated the call but there was no (London Ambulance Service)/(Hazardous Area Response Team) there.

"I remember thinking 'where are they?' I didn't see any LAS/HART team inside the tower, or the immediate area outside the tower, all night."

Paramedics had at one stage told the firefighter that survivors suffering from smoke inhalation had to walk themselves from the safety of the nearby Harrow Club to receive treatment at a pub next to Latimer Road station.

Mr Batterbee himself was "struck by a piece of debris but was saved by the riot shield I was holding".

He wrote: "I was struck by something and whatever hit me was large and heavy and still alight.

"The shield deflected it and it landed in front of me. During the impact I lost control of the shield and my footing.

"The next thing I remember after that was the sensation of something burning through my tunic. At this point, there was still smoke externally and I was surrounded by sharp, jagged debris like big sheets of metal."

Casualties were seen with towels wrapped around their faces which had become black from the smoke, he said.

A woman was also reported to be dangling a baby out of an 11th-floor window.

A man from the Harrow Club handed him a phone with a trapped resident on the other line, but due to the noise he could not hear where she was.

He wrote: "At that point there are no words describe how powerless I felt."

Reflecting on the night, he said "the main thing that could have been in place that night to assist (firefighters) would have been a building not clad in highly flammable material".

His statement ended: "I don't really think that there are any words to really capture this horrific event. This was the worst thing that I have ever experienced and witnessed."

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