Less than 15 minutes after arriving at the Grenfell Tower fire, a senior firefighter reported that the building’s external cladding was “spitting and sparking” like magnesium and catching alight “at a rapid rate”.

The remarks are recorded in the detailed, official log of the fire’s progress collected by the London fire brigade (LFB), which has been published for the first time by the inquiry into the blaze that claimed 72 lives on 14 June last year.

The LFB’s “operational response” reveals that more than 140 fire engines and 720 firefighters were deployed to the scene in north Kensington until 8pm the following evening. It also records harrowing calls from trapped residents and repeated attempts to rescue them.

The LFB’s deputy assistant commissioner, Andrew Bell, who is in charge of the service’s own Grenfell investigation andreview team, told the inquiry on Thursday that it was probably the largest deployment of breathing apparatuses ever made in the UK.

The LFB log shows firefighting teams were at one stage tasked with trying to reach the roof of the 24-storey tower and pour water down the outside of the building in the hope of extinguishing the flames.

The inquiry has previously heard that the official “stay put” advice given to those who called 999 was not officially reversed until 2.47am. The LFB log shows that some residents were nonetheless helped to leave earlier as their flats filled with dense, choking smoke.

The first firefighters arrived at the foot of Grenfell Tower shortly after 1am. The fire lift did not initially work but was soon made to operate. By 1.02am, flames were spotted flickering out of the window in flat 16, where the blaze started.

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On the ground floor, the brigade’s watch manager, Michael Dowden, soon saw the flames flaring out. “He wants to put a covering jet on to it,” the LFB report said. “Crew manager CM Secrett advises him not to at this point due to the risk to [breathing apparatus] team one who are about to enter the flat.”

A minute later, however, at 1.07 am, a fire crew outside the building reported they had begun tackling flames coming out of a fourth floor window. The family in the flat above fled, reporting that their home was on fire.

At 1.12am, the log records, Dowden said: “The external cladding appears to be burning ... It was sparking and spitting in a similar way to magnesium and was making me feel uncomfortable.” He requested additional pumps.

A few minutes later a member of the firefighting team that had entered flat 16 reported: “The water we put on the fire just turned to steam.”

Firefighter Badillo said he met residents coming down the stairs with “streaming eyes, they are coughing and look panicked”. They said they were from the fifth and sixth floors.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A CCTV still shows the first firefighters entering Grenfell Tower. Photograph: Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA

At 1.15am, the LFB log records “a large quantity of debris is falling externally”. Firefighter Cornelius stated that “the jet was having no impact on fire suppression as the fire was spreading behind the panelling and it was difficult to direct a flow of water on to the fire”. Dowden noted “the external cladding is becoming more involved at a rapid rate”.

By 1.21am, the fire in flat 16 was extinguished but firefighters observed what appeared to be “hot molten droplets” falling past the window. Heavy smoke was reported in the stairwells. The fire, the LFB log said, had meanwhile “spread up the external facade to the 23rd floor, having travelled 19 floors in 12 minutes”.

Amid the panic and chaos, there are repeated references to the plight of 12-year-old Jessica Urbano Ramirez. Firefighter Badillo said he met her sister leaving the building. She told him that Jessica was still in their 20th-floor flat and he promised he would go and get her.

Grenfell Tower victim 12-year-old Jessica Urbano Ramirez Photograph: Met Police

Badillo took the fire lift intending to rescue the young girl but it stopped at the 15th floor and when the door opened, the stairwell filled with black smoke. He was not wearing a breathing apparatus and was forced to descend.

Shortly afterwards, Jessica called the emergency services. The log records that she stayed on the phone for 55 minutes.



A firefighting team equipped with breathing apparatus then tried to reach her. At 1.48am, firefighters, including Badillo, made it to flat 176 on the 20th floor where Jessica was thought to be. They searched the flat but found no one and left, assuming she had already escaped. In fact, she had fled to the top floor to escape the flames. Her body was later discovered in a flat on the 23rd floor.

Another firefighter, Brown, attempted to put the fire out “on the outside of the building by hanging out of the window whilst being held by crew manager Batterbee”, the log records.

At around the same time, crew manager Stern crawled on to the smoke-logged 16th floor and felt “the leg of someone standing up”. He pulled him to the ground and helped him to the stairwell, where he made it safely down to the ground floor. The resident was Edward Daffarn of the Grenfell Action Group.

Dowden instructed firefighters to try to get a hose “working from the roof to allow water to be put on the fire from above”. He wanted a “drencher-type” system to extinguish the fire from the outside.

Firefighters were told that some trapped residents were threatening to jump from the tower. A firefighter was sent out with a loudhailer to reassure the residents and encourage them to find some other way down.

Among the last entries on the reconstructed LFB log – the published version of which so far only runs until 2am – is a call alerting rescuers that “we have 11 persons and a baby, who are trapped in flat 201”.

A briefer, contemporary LFB incident log continues with records of other desperate calls from residents. One recorded: “02.41am. Caller states fire is now in flat 152. Four adults and five children, ages 11 to three years, and pregnant lady are now trapped in flat 152. Unable to get out due to smoke.”

The inquiry continues on Monday.

• This article was amended on 22 June 2018. In an earlier version, we misspelled the name of Edward Daffarn of the Grenfell Action Group. This has been corrected.