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dewsweeper

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As an ex London and Cheshire fire fighter with 31 years service and retired since 1994 I was drawn to watch this program despite it only being 30 minutes in duration.
I am interested to know the views of any one who watched it.
 
As a fire fighter I was appalled by how one sided this program was (that was funded by the BBC btw)

Not one time did they mention the reason the "stay put policy" is enforced and nor did they mention that the initial crew where busy tackling the fire in flat 4 to stop the fire spread. It made it sound like everyone stood around and done nothing.

Also, the chap that said he was lucky it was pitch black when he was escaping so he couldn't see the dead body's is an indication of what conditions where like in the staircase. Imagine how many more bodies there would have been had a mass evacuation been given.

The government are doing everything possible to pass the buck on this one. There are unquestionably learning points to be made and something drastic needs to change to stop this happening again. To say it was due to actions of the fire service was shocking

Oh and "it would have taken 7 minutes to evacuate the block ". Have a day off!!!!! It takes us 20 minutes to evacuate the local tesco
What they failed to add was they conducted this test in an identical block where they primed the residents of the mass evacuation experiment. So in other words, it was in the afternoon with all residents sitting by the door waiting to hear a fire alarm. Now imagine that's 1.30am and all people are asleep!!!!! In my experience as a fire fighter around 70% of people don't respond to a fire alarm until we're banging on the door saying "get out"
 
Last edited:
hovis said:
As a fire fighter I was appalled by how one sided this program was (that was funded by the BBC btw)

Not one time did they mention the reason the "stay put policy" is enforced and nor did they mention that the initial crew where busy tackling the fire in flat 4 to stop the fire spread. It made it sound like everyone stood around and done nothing.

Also, the chap that said he was lucky it was pitch black when he was escaping so he couldn't see the dead body's is an indication of what conditions where like in the staircase. Imagine how many more bodies there would have been had a mass evacuation been given.

The government are doing everything possible to pass the buck on this one. There are unquestionably learning points to be made and something drastic needs to change to stop this happening again. To say it was due to actions of the fire service was shocking

Oh and "it would have taken 7 minutes to evacuate the block ". Have a day off!!!!! It takes us 20 minutes to evacuate the local tesco
What they failed to add was they conducted this test in an identical block where they primed the residents of the mass evacuation experiment. So in other words, it was in the afternoon with all residents sitting by the door waiting to hear a fire alarm. Now imagine that's 1.30am and all people are asleep!!!!! In my experience as a fire fighter around 70% of people don't respond to a fire alarm until we're banging on the door saying "get out"
Click to expand...

You will no doubt be aware of the backlash from the public on Channel 4's website.
Also I have complained to Ofcom with regard to the cavalier nature of this production, in particular the ridiculous 7 minute evacuation claim.
It is quite simple to use the Ofcom form, I urge you and your colleagues to use it.

I am surprised at how few have responded to my post, I really am interested in how the Fire service is regarded by fellow posters on here, after all we see some very strong opinions expressed on here for more mundane matters.
 
I assume you mean the program about Grenfell? I haven’t replied before simply because I didn’t watch it and so cannot comment on the content of the program itself.
However, I made a point of purposely not watching it. Now, by not watching it I fully accept that I may well miss some vital points. But I won’t take part in criticising a service that puts its men and women in harms way to save us all when necessary. The trailer for the program gave the impression it set out to show where the fire brigade made mistakes. If the fire service did indeed fall short in any way I am sure and I hope lessons will be learned, but the fire was not the fault of the fire service and I am sure they did their best in horrendous circumstances. It’s not a job I could do and I doubt many TV documentary makers could do either.
The blame culture in this country needs to stop and instead of unhelpful criticism we should show gratitude for those who risk their lives for us. We don’t need to be gushing about it, but not pointing the finger at every opportunity might be a good start.
 
I also have not seen the programme but I’m with Sweep on this one.
I have very good friends in the fire service and knowing both very well they are very courageous men.
Going into a fire however well trained when others are running out shows massive courage.
Watching the GT going up in flames so quick was absolutely shocking.

Don’t know the answer to this but it seems that some buildings still have similar materials and it hasn’t been in the news lately.
 
I’ve waited until I’d watched the programme and just finished it a few moments ago.

Absolutely boils my p!ss how the media can get away with making and airing programmes like this!

The legal process is still ongoing and until that is concluded they should be banned from airing these speculative pieces of rubbish.

I’m sure after any fire, Bridgades or stations will review what’s happened and learn from it, hindsight is a wonderful thing and I doubt anyone not involved in the emergency services can even begin to understand the chaos that this or any incident produces.

These guys and girls put their life on the line every time they go on a shout and when tragedy strikes the media look to blame them.

Grenfell was shocking and extremely distressing for those families who lost loved ones, my heart goes out to them all.

Firemen and women do not get the respect they deserve imo, more often than not they are an easy target as scapegoats and as an area that is constantly under pressure from cutbacks.
 
The vast majority of the emergency services do their best under very tough conditions and with the background of substantial cuts over the past nine years. I’ve not watched the programme,but these people should be praised not critised. In most situations there will be points to learn from, but that’s the same in all walks of life.
 
Not seen the programme, but the fire service is no differant to the other emergency services, NHS etc etc. They have been cut to the bone and beyond and yet are supposed to supply the same level of service.
Anyone see last week how many police are off with stress. They are not the only ones. What about the fire service etc, what are there sickness rates. Which put added pressures on those that are working. The comments re working in a blame culture have hit the nail firmly on the head. Coupled with the fact that there are management levels that just nod as directives come down the line, instead of saying " nope we cannot provide an adequate service". The nodding management quite frankly grips my poo.
Back to Grenfell. How many flats etc have had the dangerous cladding removed. How many flats have had sprinkler systems put in which are the norm in hotels. As Paul42 says it boils my tiddle.
 
I refused to watch the programme as the trailer for it was clearly looking to blame the fire service, and that was enough for me to blank it!

I know some lads who work for various companies through London borough councils who have undertaken work on the tower for many years leading up to the tragedy, and all of them have told me that the work to update and improve services inside the flats all breached the safety standards on how those flats were originally designed to not allow a fire to spread, but they were instructed to carry out the work anyway with all their paperwork signed off by council officials.

The bias being displayed by the media currently on many fronts is disgraceful, and I think the BBC, who as Hovis states funded this programme, are setting themselves up for a big fall as the public are getting sick to death of their force fed political bias reporting.
 
Purposely haven't watch the programme, I saw the advert and thought from that alone this was going to be a blame exercise so steered clear of it.

I've several friends that are London Firefighters and were actually at Grenfell that day, the danger they put themselves in along with other firefighters that day is beyond anything most people could do and certainly deserves respect. Perhaps there are some learnings to be had from this incident for the fire service but I'm sure that's true of any major incident they attend as the decision must be made on the ground and in accordance with each individual situation.

It's probably also highly likely that such an unsafe building they went into meant they didn't know what they were walking into until they got there.

Programmes like this are made to shift the blame from government or local councils who had they followed safety regulations could possibly have avoided such a tragedy. Its to easy to blame other parties though in this day and age instead of acknowledging they did all they could to preserve life.

I take my hat off to these guys, NHS workers, our emergency services and all our servicemen and women they all do difficult jobs for fairly crap pay whilst having there hands tied with bureaucratic tape.
 
One thing that many people don't realise is a high rise fire is what fire fighters fear the most. Almost all fire fighter deaths have been high rise related.

The incident commander actually told fire fighters to write their brigade number on their helmets for "identification purposes". I can't imagine how that made the crew feel. I would have been terrified
 
hovis said:
The incident commander actually told fire fighters to write their brigade number on their helmets for "identification purposes". I can't imagine how that made the crew feel. I would have been terrified
Click to expand...

In the late 70's and early 80's in NI we had a 'K' number in big white letters painted on the butt of our rifle, if there was any contact or situation when anyone went down under fire or caught in an explosion, only the 'K' was used over the radio to help identify any of the individuals. It was said as to not use names over the radio but we all knew it went deeper than that!
 
I am genuinely pleased to see that so many here see through this shoddy production and respect all the emergency services and the NHS.
I sincerely trust the official inquiry be more honest in it's findings, warts and all .
 
Haven’t watched the programme and reading through what people are saying on social media it’s not something I would like to see

Has the inquiry finished ? I didn’t think there were any questions being asked of the Fire Service - how could they be of blame for anything , they turned up - did the job to the best of their ability in appalling and horrific conditions and no doubt saved as many as humanly possible

It always seems the way when a disaster of this magnitude happens - look for blame away from the system.

There can be nothing but respect for our emergency services
 
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