Firefighter tells Grenfell inquiry how he saved a man's life by stopping him from climbing down tower using rope made of bed sheets

An automated hose sprays water onto Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in west London that was caught in a huge blaze on June 15, 2017.
AFP/Getty Images

A Grenfell firefighter has described the moment he saved a man’s life by persuading him not to climb down the tower using a rope made out of bed sheets.

Thomas Abell described how he spotted the resident trying to climb out of a window of one of the upper level flats.

He said the man had tied together bed sheets in a bid to escape the fire and planned to scale the building.

The firefighter explained how he pleaded with the man not to climb out of the window.

He said that attempting to climb down a building of that size with only a bed sheet for support would be “an impossible and deadly task.”

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

In a written statement, published by the inquiry on Monday, he wrote: "I was concerned for this male's safety, and I also did not want other residents to follow this male's example of trying to 'rappel' his way down the side of the building. At one point this male was on the window sill of his apartment.

"I shouted as loudly as I could, I instructed him to stay where he was and not to try and exit the building via the window ... I have subsequently met this man after the fire, and now know his name to be Oluwaseun."

Survivor Oluwaseun Talabi has previously described in TV interviews how he planned to shimmy down the building with his daughter on his back.

Mr Abell also described the moment he rescued two men from the burning building using a ladder.

In the statement he described what he saw upon entering the building.

“At this point I was only aware of fire on the fourth floor and fire within a tower block should not spread in this way, however it was obvious to me that this was a fire compartment due to the smoke and poor visibility.

"I remember thinking, 'this is going up like rocket fuel!'," his statement added.

Another firefighter who also was part of the Grenfell fire rescue Justin O'Beirne described what he saw when he investigated the floors above where the initial fire began.

In a written statement, published by the inquiry into the blaze, he described bolting from floor to floor soon after arriving - with his shock growing at the extent of the spread of smoke.

"It began to dawn on me, as I was going up and it was getting smokier, that people were in danger from smoke inhalation."

He then found no smoke on ninth floor but more smoke on the 10th floor, causing him to pause on the stairwell, where there was "just an eerie silence".

The statement continued: "I realised then that something wasn't quite right there and it wasn't a normal fire. I thought that there would be people who were going to die because of the amount of smoke in the lobbies of the different floors, presumably due to more flats being alight.

Grenfell photographer documents relief effort in powerful images

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"I thought that we wouldn't be able to get enough fire engines and firefighters up those stairs to get everyone out."

The public inquiry into the tower block fire in west London, which caused 72 deaths, is currently examining what happened when the blaze broke out last June.

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