Chiswick Fire Fighter Describes Grenfell Tower 'Armageddon'

Stephen O’Donoghue tells inquiry how carried young girl from burning building

A Chiswick based fire-fighter has been giving evidence to the Grenfell Tower inquiry this week. Stephen O’Donoghue, who has been in the job for nearly two decades, was addressing the panel at Holborn Bars to give his testimony about the night of the fire.

He was with a colleague with whom he had been instructed to proceed to the 12th floor to retrieve residents believed to be in flat 95. On their way up they encountered two adults and a girl aged about 11 on the floor below who were in danger of being engulfed by the heat and smoke.

Mr O’Donoghue told the enquiry how he carried the girl out of the building to safety but remained concerned for the occupants of the 12 th floor flat and informed an officer co-ordinating rescues that he had been unable to reach them. She noted this information down on a piece of paper.

He said, 'I don't know what she did with that paper but, as you can imagine, the worry over the rest of the incident and, weeks later, that our job to go to the 12th floor wasn't fulfilled.

'Whilst giving my statement, the police officer looked into it and assured me that the people had been rescued, which was a great relief.'

The occupants of flat 95 were an adult and a child.

Mr O’Donoghue had described his initial impression of the tower as if it was like a roman candle and he said in his written statement that tennis ball-sized pieces of debris were raining down like meteorites.

On his ascent of the tower he encountered firefighters who had strapped their air masks to babies and men and women being carried down the stairs by his colleagues.

Looking back on the scene after he had got out he wrote in his statement, 'I can only describe the scene as Armageddon.'

Michael Dowden, a fire officer formerly based at Chiswick Fire station, who initially took charge of the response to the incident, gave evidence to the inquiry earlier in the month. He was the London Fire Brigade watch manager at the North Kensington fire station on the night of the tragedy. He was asked to explain the reasons that it was not until two hours after the fire that the order was given to evacuate the building. The questioning had to be paused after Mr Dowden was overcome by emotion after mobile phone footage of events was shown to the inquiry. Any suggestion he should take any responsibility for the outcome that night have been fiercely rejected by his union and family and friends.

July 24, 2018