Planet Rugby Forum

Silver wrote:Poor cladding regulations are possibly the main cause for this fire.

The cladding is required for insulation reasons (fair enough) but no thought was given to the fire risk. So safe building are being turned into fire risks

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... wer-blocks

“The issue is that, under building regulations, only the surface of the cladding has to be fire-proofed to class 0, which is about surface spread,” says Tarling. “The stuff behind it doesn’t, and it’s this which has burned.” He says he recently inspected a new-build eight storey block in south-east London where there was no fire protection in the external cavity walls. “The insulation behind the external cladding is flammable polyurethane. I know because I took a chunk out and burned it.”

This allowed the cladding used to be given the class 0 rating.

theo wrote:

Torquemada 1420 wrote:

msp. wrote:It is all very well to blame budget cuts for the fire, They would of made a bad situation worse,

But it seems, the issue was caused by spending 8.5 million sticking what in effect firelighters to the outside of the building and removing fire doors from inside the building..

There was enough money sloshing around to have done the job properly.

There certainly was and that is a disgusting part of all of this. To spend that much money and still not sort out the many safety concerns is disgraceful.

Jake wrote:

Silver wrote:Poor cladding regulations are possibly the main cause for this fire.

The cladding is required for insulation reasons (fair enough) but no thought was given to the fire risk. So safe building are being turned into fire risks

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... wer-blocks

“The issue is that, under building regulations, only the surface of the cladding has to be fire-proofed to class 0, which is about surface spread,” says Tarling. “The stuff behind it doesn’t, and it’s this which has burned.” He says he recently inspected a new-build eight storey block in south-east London where there was no fire protection in the external cavity walls. “The insulation behind the external cladding is flammable polyurethane. I know because I took a chunk out and burned it.”

This allowed the cladding used to be given the class 0 rating.

Absolutely spot on.

I posted a link about this pages ago.

There's a loophole that the cladding and insulation don't have a standard when used together or something akin to it.

theo wrote:

Jake wrote:

Silver wrote:Poor cladding regulations are possibly the main cause for this fire.

The cladding is required for insulation reasons (fair enough) but no thought was given to the fire risk. So safe building are being turned into fire risks

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... wer-blocks

“The issue is that, under building regulations, only the surface of the cladding has to be fire-proofed to class 0, which is about surface spread,” says Tarling. “The stuff behind it doesn’t, and it’s this which has burned.” He says he recently inspected a new-build eight storey block in south-east London where there was no fire protection in the external cavity walls. “The insulation behind the external cladding is flammable polyurethane. I know because I took a chunk out and burned it.”

This allowed the cladding used to be given the class 0 rating.

Absolutely spot on.

I posted a link about this pages ago.

There's a loophole that the cladding and insulation don't have a standard when used together or something akin to it.

The loophole is that if it can be proven that the whole cladding system - including fixings, fire breaks and ventilation channels - are tested to a required standard then they comply. Trouble is how do you test a cladding system for a 22 storey tower? it's all theoretical so, in essence, bollocks when placed into the real world.

It's a major flaw in the system. The type of aluminium cladding used here could only have been used if they had convinced the inspector that the entire system complied with regs. In reality those panels should have been banned outright and certainly banned outright on any tall buildings.

Some major reviews are happening right now to check if they are used on other buildings both commercial and residential. Expect a lot of retrofitting to be taking place - good news for the construction industry!

Jake wrote:

Silver wrote:Poor cladding regulations are possibly the main cause for this fire.

The cladding is required for insulation reasons (fair enough) but no thought was given to the fire risk. So safe building are being turned into fire risks

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... wer-blocks

“The issue is that, under building regulations, only the surface of the cladding has to be fire-proofed to class 0, which is about surface spread,” says Tarling. “The stuff behind it doesn’t, and it’s this which has burned.” He says he recently inspected a new-build eight storey block in south-east London where there was no fire protection in the external cavity walls. “The insulation behind the external cladding is flammable polyurethane. I know because I took a chunk out and burned it.”

This allowed the cladding used to be given the class 0 rating.

Absolutely spot on.

I posted a link about this pages ago.

There's a loophole that the cladding and insulation don't have a standard when used together or something akin to it.

theo wrote:

Jake wrote:

Silver wrote:Poor cladding regulations are possibly the main cause for this fire.

The cladding is required for insulation reasons (fair enough) but no thought was given to the fire risk. So safe building are being turned into fire risks

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... wer-blocks

“The issue is that, under building regulations, only the surface of the cladding has to be fire-proofed to class 0, which is about surface spread,” says Tarling. “The stuff behind it doesn’t, and it’s this which has burned.” He says he recently inspected a new-build eight storey block in south-east London where there was no fire protection in the external cavity walls. “The insulation behind the external cladding is flammable polyurethane. I know because I took a chunk out and burned it.”

This allowed the cladding used to be given the class 0 rating.

Absolutely spot on.

I posted a link about this pages ago.

There's a loophole that the cladding and insulation don't have a standard when used together or something akin to it.

The loophole is that if it can be proven that the whole cladding system - including fixings, fire breaks and ventilation channels - are tested to a required standard then they comply. Trouble is how do you test a cladding system for a 22 storey tower? it's all theoretical so, in essence, bollocks when placed into the real world.

It's a major flaw in the system. The type of aluminium cladding used here could only have been used if they had convinced the inspector that the entire system complied with regs. In reality those panels should have been banned outright and certainly banned outright on any tall buildings.

Some major reviews are happening right now to check if they are used on other buildings both commercial and residential. Expect a lot of retrofitting to be taking place - good news for the construction industry!

Torquemada 1420 wrote:

Jake wrote:

Silver wrote:Poor cladding regulations are possibly the main cause for this fire.

The cladding is required for insulation reasons (fair enough) but no thought was given to the fire risk. So safe building are being turned into fire risks

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... wer-blocks

“The issue is that, under building regulations, only the surface of the cladding has to be fire-proofed to class 0, which is about surface spread,” says Tarling. “The stuff behind it doesn’t, and it’s this which has burned.” He says he recently inspected a new-build eight storey block in south-east London where there was no fire protection in the external cavity walls. “The insulation behind the external cladding is flammable polyurethane. I know because I took a chunk out and burned it.”

This allowed the cladding used to be given the class 0 rating.

Absolutely spot on.

I posted a link about this pages ago.

There's a loophole that the cladding and insulation don't have a standard when used together or something akin to it.

Genius. Theoretically, you could take 2 inert substances and when put together, create something lethal and so the notion of ignoring the complete item and its function is ludicrous. The only other point being they could have rendered the insulation practically inert if they had not built the cladding to create chimneys up the sides.

Anonymous. wrote:

dantedelew wrote:

Anonymous. wrote:Yeah right. Put it this way. K&C were expecting a lot more money to spend on their properties. However as soon as the Conservative government came in they cut the money councils were to receive. So clearly each project had less to spend on it. Including Grenfell Tower.

I appreciate that the Grenfell refurb was a couple of years back but if K&C genuinely felt strapped, you'd have thought they'd increase council tax by the the max 5% this year. They haven't, they've gone for around 2%. Looks like they feel their fnnaices aren't too bad.

It's a Tory council. Providing fewer services and cutting costs is part of their mantra. Increasing council tax to replace money that was taken by a Tory government is not something they were likely to do. Any plans to do so would make headlines.

Surrey council abandons plan to raise council tax by 15%
7th of Feb

Theresa May accused of doing 'sweetheart deal' with Tory Surrey council to stop embarrassing tax rise
8th of Feb

At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday Jeremy Corbyn produced leaked texts apparently from the flagship Tory council’s leader to a central government civil servant which suggested a “memorandum of understanding” had been reached to find a “solution”.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 68831.html

RodneyRegis wrote:

Anonymous. wrote:

dantedelew wrote:

Anonymous. wrote:Yeah right. Put it this way. K&C were expecting a lot more money to spend on their properties. However as soon as the Conservative government came in they cut the money councils were to receive. So clearly each project had less to spend on it. Including Grenfell Tower.

I appreciate that the Grenfell refurb was a couple of years back but if K&C genuinely felt strapped, you'd have thought they'd increase council tax by the the max 5% this year. They haven't, they've gone for around 2%. Looks like they feel their fnnaices aren't too bad.

It's a Tory council. Providing fewer services and cutting costs is part of their mantra. Increasing council tax to replace money that was taken by a Tory government is not something they were likely to do. Any plans to do so would make headlines.

Surrey council abandons plan to raise council tax by 15%
7th of Feb

Theresa May accused of doing 'sweetheart deal' with Tory Surrey council to stop embarrassing tax rise
8th of Feb

At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday Jeremy Corbyn produced leaked texts apparently from the flagship Tory council’s leader to a central government civil servant which suggested a “memorandum of understanding” had been reached to find a “solution”.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 68831.html

That's completely unrelated. They wanted to raise the C Tax on the tenuous premise that they needed to pay for social care. They needed a mandate from the residents to do so, and thought they would get it because only the old people would bother to vote, but it met such strong opposition they just decided to put it up by 5% each year forever instead.

In 2014, the council decided to hand back £100 to residents paying the top rate of council tax in 2014 after a claimed “overachieving efficiency drive”, a decision criticised in a letter to the Guardian following the high-rise fire.

The rebate was paid weeks before local elections which returned a Conservative council, the author of the letter wrote. “Austerity, K&C style: you give to the rich while taking from the poor (nobody with discounted bills or claiming council tax support was eligible to share in the bounty of the town hall blue-chips).

Anonymous. wrote:

theo wrote:

Jake wrote:

Silver wrote:Poor cladding regulations are possibly the main cause for this fire.

The cladding is required for insulation reasons (fair enough) but no thought was given to the fire risk. So safe building are being turned into fire risks

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... wer-blocks

“The issue is that, under building regulations, only the surface of the cladding has to be fire-proofed to class 0, which is about surface spread,” says Tarling. “The stuff behind it doesn’t, and it’s this which has burned.” He says he recently inspected a new-build eight storey block in south-east London where there was no fire protection in the external cavity walls. “The insulation behind the external cladding is flammable polyurethane. I know because I took a chunk out and burned it.”

This allowed the cladding used to be given the class 0 rating.

Absolutely spot on.

I posted a link about this pages ago.

There's a loophole that the cladding and insulation don't have a standard when used together or something akin to it.

The loophole is that if it can be proven that the whole cladding system - including fixings, fire breaks and ventilation channels - are tested to a required standard then they comply. Trouble is how do you test a cladding system for a 22 storey tower? it's all theoretical so, in essence, bollocks when placed into the real world.

It's a major flaw in the system. The type of aluminium cladding used here could only have been used if they had convinced the inspector that the entire system complied with regs. In reality those panels should have been banned outright and certainly banned outright on any tall buildings.

Some major reviews are happening right now to check if they are used on other buildings both commercial and residential. Expect a lot of retrofitting to be taking place - good news for the construction industry!

Lots of councils in London have come out in the few days and stated categorically they have fire resistant cladding. One who used the same firm that did the Grenfell building has confined on that occasion the firm fitted cladding with a rockwool core.

Torquemada 1420 wrote:

Jake wrote:

Silver wrote:Poor cladding regulations are possibly the main cause for this fire.

The cladding is required for insulation reasons (fair enough) but no thought was given to the fire risk. So safe building are being turned into fire risks

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... wer-blocks

“The issue is that, under building regulations, only the surface of the cladding has to be fire-proofed to class 0, which is about surface spread,” says Tarling. “The stuff behind it doesn’t, and it’s this which has burned.” He says he recently inspected a new-build eight storey block in south-east London where there was no fire protection in the external cavity walls. “The insulation behind the external cladding is flammable polyurethane. I know because I took a chunk out and burned it.”

This allowed the cladding used to be given the class 0 rating.

Absolutely spot on.

I posted a link about this pages ago.

There's a loophole that the cladding and insulation don't have a standard when used together or something akin to it.

Genius. Theoretically, you could take 2 inert substances and when put together, create something lethal and so the notion of ignoring the complete item and its function is ludicrous. The only other point being they could have rendered the insulation practically inert if they had not built the cladding to create chimneys up the sides.

Petros wrote:Cheap council tax in Kensington & Chelsea anyway

Band Range of Values
RBKC Council Tax

GLA Tax Total Council Tax
A up to and including £40,000 £521.33 £186.68 £708.01
B £40,001 to £52,000 £608.22 £217.79 £826.01
C £52,001 to £68,000 £695.11 £248.91 £944.02
D £68,001 to £88,000 £782.00 £280.02 £1062.02
E £88,001 to £120,000 £955.78 £342.25 £1298.03
F £120,001 to £160,000 £1129.56 £404.47 £1534.03
G £160,001 to £320,000 £1303.33 £466.70 £1770.03
H over £320,000 £1564.00 £560.04 £2124.04

theo wrote: You generally need to leave a gap between the cladding and the main structure to allow ventilation to stop damp ingress. But normally you put in fire breaks (physical barriers) to stop the air taking the fire up numerous storeys. Now either the fire breaks didn't work or there weren't any.

theo wrote:

Torquemada 1420 wrote:

Jake wrote:

Silver wrote:Poor cladding regulations are possibly the main cause for this fire.

The cladding is required for insulation reasons (fair enough) but no thought was given to the fire risk. So safe building are being turned into fire risks

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... wer-blocks

“The issue is that, under building regulations, only the surface of the cladding has to be fire-proofed to class 0, which is about surface spread,” says Tarling. “The stuff behind it doesn’t, and it’s this which has burned.” He says he recently inspected a new-build eight storey block in south-east London where there was no fire protection in the external cavity walls. “The insulation behind the external cladding is flammable polyurethane. I know because I took a chunk out and burned it.”

This allowed the cladding used to be given the class 0 rating.

Absolutely spot on.

I posted a link about this pages ago.

There's a loophole that the cladding and insulation don't have a standard when used together or something akin to it.

Genius. Theoretically, you could take 2 inert substances and when put together, create something lethal and so the notion of ignoring the complete item and its function is ludicrous. The only other point being they could have rendered the insulation practically inert if they had not built the cladding to create chimneys up the sides.

You generally need to leave a gap between the cladding and the main structure to allow ventilation to stop damp ingress. But normally you put in fire breaks (physical barriers) to stop the air taking the fire up numerous storeys. Now either the fire breaks didn't work or there weren't any.

There is also uncertainty over how the project’s adherence with building regulations was scrutinised. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, where Grenfell Tower is situated, said a “full plans decision notice was not required in this case” and that “a completion certificate was issued” instead.

According to the government’s website, a full plans decision notice is “the most thorough option”, but this was not taken. Neither the borough nor the cladding contractor, Harley, responded when asked to comment on why this route was not taken.

The Reynobond cladding applied to the Grenfell tower last year as part of a £10m refurbishment is made from powder-coated aluminium panels that are usually filled with plastic insulation, which is flammable.

As detailed on the planning application, fire barriers were due to be inserted between the cladding on each floor to limit the spread to small melt out areas. But Dr Jim Glocking, technical director at the Fire Protection Association, said its own tests on external thermal insulation cladding systems showed that if these barriers are breached by a vent or a pipe, “a chimney effect may quickly develop that will cause the very rapid consumption of the insulation and expansion of the damage area”.

Geoff Wilkinson, managing director of Wilkinson Construction Consultants, said the hole could be relatively modest in size, adding: “Even a drill hole of four inches in diameter can be enough.”

During planning in 2012, the building service engineering company Max Fordham advised that one option in the refurbishment was to remove “fire stopping” systems temporarily in order to install new heating pipes. It is unclear if that approach was taken and Max Fordham did not return request for comment.

The cladding contractor, Harley, declined to comment on how the system was built out – citing the forthcoming investigation and public inquiry. But it is understood the design differed to that which was detailed in planning documents. Investigators are likely to want to quickly establish whether details such as cavity fire barriers, which appeared in planning drawings, were included.

Torquemada 1420 wrote:

theo wrote: You generally need to leave a gap between the cladding and the main structure to allow ventilation to stop damp ingress. But normally you put in fire breaks (physical barriers) to stop the air taking the fire up numerous storeys. Now either the fire breaks didn't work or there weren't any.

Assume the original structure was damp proof anyway so even if you permanently hosed the (original) outside wall, it would remain dry? Anyway, I hear you but one solution would be solid, water resistant material. Even polystyrene blocks would have been less disastrous?!

Torquemada 1420 wrote:

theo wrote: You generally need to leave a gap between the cladding and the main structure to allow ventilation to stop damp ingress. But normally you put in fire breaks (physical barriers) to stop the air taking the fire up numerous storeys. Now either the fire breaks didn't work or there weren't any.

Assume the original structure was damp proof anyway so even if you permanently hosed the (original) outside wall, it would remain dry? Anyway, I hear you but one solution would be solid, water resistant material. Even polystyrene blocks would have been less disastrous?!

Anonymous. wrote: They were in the plans

theo wrote:

Anonymous. wrote: They were in the plans

Then it is down to poor design and the wrong materials used. Someone's in trouble.

Anonymous. wrote:

theo wrote:

Anonymous. wrote: They were in the plans

Then it is down to poor design and the wrong materials used. Someone's in trouble.

Poor design, not fitted, or fitted incorrectly.

theo wrote:They value engineered the arse out of it, that's for sure.

theo wrote:They value engineered the arse out of it, that's for sure.

Jake wrote:

theo wrote:They value engineered the arse out of it, that's for sure.

Theo, in the world of euphemisms this phrase is one of the most misguided of all as you and I both know the real meaning.

Jake wrote:

Anonymous. wrote:

theo wrote:

Anonymous. wrote: They were in the plans

Then it is down to poor design and the wrong materials used. Someone's in trouble.

Poor design, not fitted, or fitted incorrectly.

There's a lot more that could go wrong, believe me.

We don't even know the chain of employment, design liability, repsonsibility, detail development, if or not contractor designed in a CM type contract.

It's silly to speculate in depth, although one thing I'll say is the downstreaming of design responsibility and 'value engineering proposals' are in here somewhere- I really believe that.

theo wrote:

Torquemada 1420 wrote:

theo wrote: You generally need to leave a gap between the cladding and the main structure to allow ventilation to stop damp ingress. But normally you put in fire breaks (physical barriers) to stop the air taking the fire up numerous storeys. Now either the fire breaks didn't work or there weren't any.

Assume the original structure was damp proof anyway so even if you permanently hosed the (original) outside wall, it would remain dry? Anyway, I hear you but one solution would be solid, water resistant material. Even polystyrene blocks would have been less disastrous?!

If you don't leave an air gap the moisture sits there and then expands/contracts and breaks up the structure or simply doesn't dry out and you get damp. Remember they put this cladding over the top of the original concrete facade so there are still the old external walls behind it. It's fine when it is open to the elements as it will dry out but if covered it can fester. So you need a gap. But you also need fire breaks.

theo wrote:

Jake wrote:

theo wrote:They value engineered the arse out of it, that's for sure.

Theo, in the world of euphemisms this phrase is one of the most misguided of all as you and I both know the real meaning.

Quite. Nothing of value is left.

c69 wrote:

camroc1 wrote:

theo wrote:

Jake wrote:

theo wrote:They value engineered the arse out of it, that's for sure.

Theo, in the world of euphemisms this phrase is one of the most misguided of all as you and I both know the real meaning.

Quite. Nothing of value is left.

Pushing design liability down to the bottom most feeder in the chain is a very short term position to take in an industry that is noted for very long tails.

When deregulation "value for money" and destroying the health and safety culture is of uttermost importance then it's no wonder things go wrong.
Oh and be well aware Health and Safety has been demonised by certain sections in the UK.

LeGrenouile wrote:nothing like the Irish builders to teach us all about Health & the safety plus how to build.


I wonder how many Irish built this block

camroc1 wrote: I can only speak about Ireland and the construction industry. H &S is taken seriously by all players, and is an industry utterly changed wrt h & s than the one I entered.
Edit. For the better that is.

LeGrenouile wrote:nothing like the Irish builders to teach us all about Health & the safety plus how to build.


I wonder how many Irish built this block

The Times newspaper estimated the total bill could be as high as £1 billion (US$1.27 billion) but the eventual cost will depend on the number of deaths, the litigation involved, the cost of demolishing the building and the price of rebuilding the tower.

Ironically, Kensington and Chelsea Council, which is the freeholder of Grenfell Tower, changed its insurer in March.

Kensington, and two other boroughs — Westminster, as well as Hammersmith and Fulham Council — switched from Zurich, the giant Swiss company, to Protector Forsikring, a Norwegian company with a UK office in Manchester to save money.

​Protector Forsikring was reportedly charging a much lower annual premium.

The Oslo-based company said last week: "As the insurance provider for Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Protector Forsikring ASA is involved in the tragic fire in Grenfell Tower.

"Our thoughts go to the people who lived in the building and their families. Protector will work closely with the local authorities and rescue teams."

The company said the cost could be covered by its reinsurance program and its shares fell only marginally on the Norwegian stock exchange.

Reinsurance is the process by which insurance companies insure themselves against enormous losses.In the case of Protector Forsikring, its reinsurer is believed to be the giant German company, Munich Re.

The Grenfell Tower fire is set to be the largest ever insurance payout in Europe and one of the biggest globally.

The 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001 are thought to have resulted in over US$6 billion being paid out, much of it to the owner of the World Trade Center, Larry Silverstein.

But when all the money paid out to the airlines and the victims of the plane crashes were included the sum was closer to US$40 billion.

Last year a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta ended up costing Canadian insurers US$2.7 billion.

Norwegian insurer Protector Forsikring ASA had said that it was the insurer for the building operated by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council, and so involved in the fire coverage for the tower block. The insurer said that it anticipated that the loss from the Grenfell Tower fire would “mainly be picked up by Protector’s reinsurance program.”

Now the company has revealed that the building itself is covered with a £20 million policy, which given the extensive damage to the tower block it is hard to see doing anything other than paying out in full. Additionally, Protector Forsikring foresees other costs including those for re-housing residents would take the total loss above £25 million.

“Reinsurance is handled by Munich Re, which will pick up almost the entire cost,” Protector CEO Sverre Bjerkeli told the Reuters news agency.

So Munich Re looks set to be the company that pays the lions share of the costs associated with the tragic blaze on Wednesday morning.

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. 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 3rd floor we were told to look at a floor plan that had been hastily drawn on a wall.
We stood looking at it waiting at entry control to be given instructions my BA partner and I stood waiting with other firefighters waiting to see what information there was available. 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.
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.
The couple were shouting and screaming at us through the coughing, trying to tell us there were 5 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 5?
•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 decided who to take?
•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!
Dam!
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.
"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....
5 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!
Im 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 casualties arms my BA partner has her legs.
We start down again.. round and round we go, hear the noise of crews working hard around us. There are still crews going up the stairs past us.
My BA pre alarm starts going this off.... this means one thing.. my air is running low.. similar noises are all around me.
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 casualties legs from her.
Walking backwards down another 5 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, 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.
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.
Time passes quickly, some people are given jobs while others have to wait to be tasked with going back inside.
Some time later I couldn't say how long we are all grouped together waiting for news. A senior officer is telling us he knows we've already broken all the policy's we have. He knows the risks we've taken but thats 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 from on the grass from their first entry are back up, ready, stood in full kit waiting for their orders to go in again.
Now 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.
All this time hour after hour my colleagues were pushing themselves above and beyond what you'd think was humanly possible.
As the light broke and time passed we knew it had gone to make pumps 40, and that 20 relief trucks were ordered. So as the trucks with fresh crews arrived those of us that 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 4 hours time we will be on duty again.

Duff Paddy wrote:Will be interesting to see if insurers start refusing to insure retro fit cladding buildings

village wrote:Firefighters account: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/di ... e-10648450

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. 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 3rd floor we were told to look at a floor plan that had been hastily drawn on a wall.
We stood looking at it waiting at entry control to be given instructions my BA partner and I stood waiting with other firefighters waiting to see what information there was available. 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.
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.
The couple were shouting and screaming at us through the coughing, trying to tell us there were 5 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 5?
•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 decided who to take?
•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!
Dam!
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.
"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....
5 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!
Im 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 casualties arms my BA partner has her legs.
We start down again.. round and round we go, hear the noise of crews working hard around us. There are still crews going up the stairs past us.
My BA pre alarm starts going this off.... this means one thing.. my air is running low.. similar noises are all around me.
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 casualties legs from her.
Walking backwards down another 5 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, 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.
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.
Time passes quickly, some people are given jobs while others have to wait to be tasked with going back inside.
Some time later I couldn't say how long we are all grouped together waiting for news. A senior officer is telling us he knows we've already broken all the policy's we have. He knows the risks we've taken but thats 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 from on the grass from their first entry are back up, ready, stood in full kit waiting for their orders to go in again.
Now 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.
All this time hour after hour my colleagues were pushing themselves above and beyond what you'd think was humanly possible.
As the light broke and time passed we knew it had gone to make pumps 40, and that 20 relief trucks were ordered. So as the trucks with fresh crews arrived those of us that 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 4 hours time we will be on duty again.

The Oslo-based company said last week: "As the insurance provider for Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Protector Forsikring ASA is involved in the tragic fire in Grenfell Tower.

"Our thoughts go to the people who lived in the building and their families. Protector will work closely with the local authorities and rescue teams."

village wrote:Firefighters account: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/di ... e-10648450

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. 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 3rd floor we were told to look at a floor plan that had been hastily drawn on a wall.
We stood looking at it waiting at entry control to be given instructions my BA partner and I stood waiting with other firefighters waiting to see what information there was available. 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.
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.
The couple were shouting and screaming at us through the coughing, trying to tell us there were 5 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 5?
•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 decided who to take?
•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!
Dam!
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.
"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....
5 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!
Im 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 casualties arms my BA partner has her legs.
We start down again.. round and round we go, hear the noise of crews working hard around us. There are still crews going up the stairs past us.
My BA pre alarm starts going this off.... this means one thing.. my air is running low.. similar noises are all around me.
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 casualties legs from her.
Walking backwards down another 5 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, 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.
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.
Time passes quickly, some people are given jobs while others have to wait to be tasked with going back inside.
Some time later I couldn't say how long we are all grouped together waiting for news. A senior officer is telling us he knows we've already broken all the policy's we have. He knows the risks we've taken but thats 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 from on the grass from their first entry are back up, ready, stood in full kit waiting for their orders to go in again.
Now 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.
All this time hour after hour my colleagues were pushing themselves above and beyond what you'd think was humanly possible.
As the light broke and time passed we knew it had gone to make pumps 40, and that 20 relief trucks were ordered. So as the trucks with fresh crews arrived those of us that 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 4 hours time we will be on duty again.