Andrew O’Loughlin, the deputy assistant commissioner for the London Fire Brigade, has told the Grenfell Tower public inquiry that the building should have protected people who stayed in the residential high-rise and waited for firefighetrs to reach them.

Seventy-two residents were killed in the blaze. Many of them followed the LFB advice to 'stay put'.

The fire was fuelled by combustible cladding, faulty fire doors, failing smoke ventilation systems and a fire lift that failed to work properly.

Mr O'Loughlin told the inquiry, "You wouldn’t expect fire to spread around the building like it did on the outside, and for it to fail so catastrophically, we’d never expected or anticipated that would do that in the way it did, and then similarly … we would not expect the internal protection to fail so badly as well,” he said.

“So my expectation was people who were safe in their flats should stay safe in their flats.”

This stage of the inquiry is focussing on what happened on the night. The second part, due to start next year, will look at the decisions and actions taken by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea when the tower block was refurbished.

Original source
The Guardian