Grenfell Inquiry Day 49: fire chief reveals frustration over lack of building plans

The inquiry was shown video footage from the morning of the fire in which Mr Roe was seen venting his frustration about the delay and making reference to the Lakanal House fire.

“Having experienced the back end of the Lakanal inquiry, having been in charge of other major incidents, I’m telling you now, the fact that you have not been able to get me a set of plans is a major deficiency and will be highlighted,” he was heard saying on the video.

Mr Roe first attended the fire at 2.29am, but the video was recorded at 7.30am. He was later seen on video an hour later thanking an unnamed person for the building plans.

The inquiry has previously heard frustration from firefighters about the failure to provide plans.

During today’s evidence, Mr Roe was also asked whether he believed that a longer ladder would have helped tackle the blaze. It emerged that a 43m ladder was offered by Surrey fire brigade to help tackle the fire. The longest ladder the London Fire Brigade has is 30m.

However, Mr Roe dismissed the idea it would have made a difference. When asked if a longer ladder would have helped, he replied: “My gut feeling is absolutely none.”

He added: “The way the fire spread, it was almost like a petrol fire. There was something very wrong about the way it spread externally. I’m not sure the water supply through a single area appliance would have been sufficient to stop the progress of it.

"It was spreading vertically, laterally and downwards because of the nature of the clad material. The jets were hitting the building, but they weren’t noticeably affecting the spread, or ferocity of the fire.”

Towards the end of his evidence, Mr Roe gave an emotional tribute to his colleagues who had tried to tackle the fire, which killed 72 people.

“I could not have been prouder to be a London firefighter, nor lead the men and women of the London Fire Brigade. I felt they operated in the best traditions of our 150-year history and put themselves at enormous risk for hour after hour after hour and we were battling against what was frankly an absolute failure of the building system and they had done their best in intolerable circumstances and performed well beyond their physical and mental capacities, and actually some numbers have paid the price consequently.”

London Fire Brigade commissioner Dany Cotton is due to give evidence to the inquiry tomorrow, in what is the final week of evidence from firefighters. The first phase of the inquiry is focusing on the events on the night of the fire, while the second phase will look at decisions around the refurbishment of the 24-storey tower.