(SIREN) MAN: Jesus. MAN: How is that possible? Last month, London suffered its most devastating fire since the Blitz. MAN: Get out! Fire! MAN: Get out! These are the London firefighters who ran into the Grenfell Tower, risking their lives to try to save hundreds of people. After 30 years in the London Fire Brigade, I didn't ever expect to see anything like that. I pray to God I never will again. This is the first time they've told their story. MAN: Go, go, go! You could hear people screaming for help. It was dreadful. MAN: She needs help. I'm going. It was horrific, and it did mess me up a little bit, if I'm honest. Messed me up a little bit. We have been following the London Fire Brigade over the last year... You could be turning up to anything from a gas explosion to a terrorist attack. Extend. ..as they responded to emergencies across the capital. We need to get some water down here. Get down! We have a large possibility of an explosion. For the first time, firefighters are wearing body cameras and filming themselves on the front line. There, there, there! We will see what they see. Fire is a killer. It's a breathing, living thing. They're in there right now. These are the men and women whose job it is to run towards danger... (SIREN, SHATTERING GLASS) OK. Gentlemen, you are getting this. ..when most of us run away. We had no intention of coming out until we'd saved as many people as we could. If it was going to collapse, we were going to die trying. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Able 2017 WOMAN: Hello, Fire Brigade. All 999 calls for the London Fire Brigade come through a control centre in Merton, South-West London. Fire Brigade. At 12:54am on 14th June, an unusually high number of calls started coming in about an incident in West London. Multiple fire engines were dispatched to a fire in a 4th-floor flat in Grenfell Tower in North Kensington. (SIREN) I was at home in bed before the call. My pager went off at 0118 to inform me of a flat fire at Grenfell Tower. Borough Commander Richard Welch was one of the first senior officers to arrive, whilst fire engines across London raced to the scene. Initially, they had six machines there, then they asked for eight and then 10 and then 15, 20 and then 25. I'm hearing that on the way there, so it's becoming really clear that we've got a serious incident going on. MAN: Oh, my. Can you believe this, bro? I know Grenfell Tower, I've been there before. As I was approaching it, I just knew we had probably the job of our lives on the go. Already, I could see fire from lower floors, and I couldn't believe I was looking at fire to the top floor. MAN: This whole building's burning, man. I'd never seen anything like that ever. The fire was changing, it was moving rapidly. MAN: Get out! Fire, fire! MAN: Get out! Get out! There's someone right at the top, man. There's people in the building! I know. There's still people in the building! At 1:30 in the morning, fire crews had been fighting the fire for over half an hour, and the scale of the challenge was becoming clear. Grenfell Tower was home to at least 350 people. One of the first things I did was to declare it a major incident. I knew we were going to need a lot of help. You could hear people screaming for help. MAN: Help her! Help her, up there. She needs help, up there! There were people making signals for help. He's made the rope from his blankets and he's sent it down. Personally, I could see faces at the window. I could see the torches and the calls for help. MAN: Look, look, look, there's someone at the top, shining his light. SOS. SOS. It was dreadful. There's hundreds of people in there. Men, women, children were coming out, fully sooted, black. They'd been through a layer of smoke in complete distress. There were people running out who had lost contact with loved ones. Some were even trying to get back in to get to loved ones. There were firefighters bringing casualties down the staircase who were clearly exhausted but wanted to get back in there and rescue more. In a tower-block incident, firefighters establish a bridgehead. This is an operational hub actually inside the building, two floors beneath the fire. It was from here borough commanders Richard Welch and Pat Gouldbourne helped run the operation. Probably the busiest bridgehead I've ever seen, there was so much going on. We had hoses going up the staircase, people trying to get out, coming down the staircase. Firefighters going up the staircase, and the staircase filling with smoke. The priority was to try and reach the flats we knew we had people in. The issue we had was the intensity of the fire. After a couple of hours, 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters were now on the scene. In parts of the building, the fire was reaching temperatures of 1,000 degrees. It was dark, visibility was poor. It was hot, but the intensity of the heat was increasing rapidly, floor by floor. It was like you were walking into a red-hot oven. I can only describe the things I saw as horrific, yeah. It was. It was horrific. To get to the residents trapped across 24 floors, firefighters had to push themselves and their equipment to the limits. RICHARD: Our breathing apparatus doesn't last forever, so we have to work out where we can send people to, how far they can get. Firefighters have difficult decisions to make, very difficult decisions - can you get them all out, do you get people to stay, do you come back for some people? Before you get there, you can find a casualty. You've got to pull them out, or do you leave them, do you send them out on their own? But this scale, Grenfell, was massively different to any other job in terms of the volume of people. The job was even more challenging because there was only one staircase for the whole building. On the staircase, there was quite an overpowering, deafening sound of screaming, erm... ..which was tough. There was a lot of falling debris. We had concerns about people who may jump to try and get away from the fire. Erm, that just drove us on, just drove us on. When you can hear those screams, you've got to get there, you've got to get there. * I remember carrying a young baby, probably two or three years old, and the mother. I picked them up from the third-floor stairwell. And she was just...beside herself. In the midst of the inferno, the very structure of the building became unsafe. There was the potential for the building to collapse. You could hear bangs all the time, parts of the building falling down. That's going to put an element of fear into anyone. We had no intention of coming out until we'd saved as many people as we could. If it was going to collapse, we were going to die trying. Every single person within that building was willing to lose their own life to try and save others, every single person. Outside, falling debris was seriously hampering the rescue operation. MAN: Debris is falling on the floor, catching fire. The debris was not just falling down the side of the building, it was being caught in the wind and travelling some distance. We had an aerial platform up on the east side of the building providing some water, and it was a very dangerous place to be. MAN: Oh, yo, yo, yo, yo! In fact there was a crew with a hand-held hose who were firing water over his head to try and deflect debris from falling on him. As dawn approached, four hours after the first 999 call, the fire was still spreading. There was a point where Pat and I had a word. We looked at each other, and we both knew that we were really struggling, we were really struggling to beat the fire. But the priority for us was, there was people in there that needed us, and we were the only people that were able to help them. Against all odds, the rescues continued. One of my crews, between two of them, were carrying a woman, then they came across a woman and a child and managed - I don't know how, in all that heat and smoke - managed to bring the two women and the child out with one carrying the child, between them, supporting and dragging the women down the stairs. Throughout the night, we kept bringing people out but we were permanently getting beaten back by the fire. It was white-hot. They were pinned to the floor, it was so hot. Heat rises. The temperature at the top of the room, if they'd stood up, they would have instantly caught fire. People were climbing the stairs and going onto the landings to carry out rescues on their bellies, it was that hot. We knew there was people that we were desperate to get. I had them in my head. I've still got a list in my head of people I want to get to. You always think you're going to win. Simple. I didn't even notice it was daylight. Lost all track of time. There were firefighters laying about with haunted looks in their eyes. After 30 years in the London Fire Brigade, I didn't ever expect to see anything like that... ..and I pray to God I never will again. In the days following the tragedy, the fire service and police started the painstaking process of recovering the bodies of the victims. I was sent specifically to a floor to deal with a number of casualties, deceased, and to bring them back down. Every single room looked like a bomb had gone off in it. The thing with this, to be honest, is the fact that it happened. And it did mess me up a little bit, if I'm honest, and erm... Messed me up a little bit. At least 80 people are currently thought to have died in the tragedy. It's the UK's biggest loss of life in a fire since the Second World War. The final death toll remains unknown. I've been back, and I went up to the wall that they've got and paid my respects, I think a lot of firefighters did. While I was there, I spoke to some people in the community and they were just, you know, they were amazing. I can't imagine what it's like for them. How does a community deal with something so big? Professionally, you know deep down you did everything and more... ..but it doesn't make you feel any better. There is a feeling of being extremely proud of what we did and how hard everyone worked, but there's also that horrific feeling of... ..we didn't get everybody. And we tried... really hard. * Tragedies on the scale of Grenfell Tower are once-in-a-lifetime incidents, but for all of us, an ordinary day can take a dangerous turn at any time... ..and when it does, London Fire Brigade is on the front line of keeping over eight million Londoners safe every day. They deal with over 20,000 fires a year. Hello, Fire Brigade. WOMAN: Hello. We have a fire in our kitchen, in our oven. All incidents start with a 999 call to the control centre in Merton. Hello, Fire Brigade. How can I help you? MAN: Hi. There's a large fire. Can you see what's on fire? Yeah, a block of flats which is burning vigorously at the moment. How tall is it, a high-rise block? Three-storey. We've got fire engines on the way. Thanks for calling. With a call about an explosion in a block of flats, the nearest stations are automatically alerted and firefighters are out of the door in 60 seconds, including crew manager, Alan Jones, a few miles away. We don't know what's exploded. In this day and age, you could be turning up to, from a gas explosion to a terrorist attack. The biggest concern is to make sure everyone is safe and well and away from the incident. NEWSCASTER: Breaking news in the last few minutes - the explosion at a block of flats. Police have yet to confirm the cause. Enquiries are under way. Road closures are in place. It's after five o'clock. The fire is spreading, and there's every likelihood that people are trapped inside. Seventy firefighters and ten fire engines from local stations are racing to the scene. With eight flats already destroyed, hundreds of tenants have been evacuated. (COUGHS) We've got babies in that block, elderly people, all sorts of people. No-one needs this. I've never felt anything like it in my life, to be honest. There was a rumble through the whole building, you know? It's impossible to know if everyone is out, which is added pressure for Alan and the crew to stop the fire. The structure has been compromised on the side as well, not just the back here. It looks like the fire has spread to the loft space. We might have to peel the roof off. Yeah. Crews are pushing the fire back, but with smoke masking the flames, they need thermal cameras to find it. Tuck that in. Hold it where I can see it. In house fires, most deaths are caused by smoke inhalation. It can kill in a matter of minutes. If anyone is trapped inside, firefighters must act fast. Crews are preparing to go in. Firefighter Greg Lessons is on the scene, and responsible for monitoring his team's air supply. Each tank only lasts 31 minutes. When you think people are in there, it changes absolutely everything. It goes from just a building that you could possibly save to a life or lives that you could save. (ALARM) As they get closer to the fire, temperatures are well over 100 degrees Celsius. I'm by the right-hand wall, mate. As his team searches through the smoke, it's an anxious wait for Greg. When you're in a smoke-filled room, there's zero visibility. You literally cannot see the hand in front of your face. It's the most disorientating feeling there is. It's quite a lonely feeling, actually, because you're completely detached from the outside world. Whilst the search continues, the paramedics treat those that have escaped. People are walking round in a daze, they don't know what's happened. They don't even know they're cut or they've broken limbs and stuff. Just a bit of a shock. We didn't think we were going to get out. I breathed in, it was burning. Oh, dear. MAN: I'm with you, mate. Failing to find anyone, they're calling in the specialists. It's the Belt and Braces. That area there. Terry Gooding, from Urban Search and Rescue. At the moment, we've got one person still potentially unaccounted for. Terry's partner is a veteran of over a hundred search-and-rescue missions ` Kirby, a six-year-old springer spaniel. (BARKS) We're going to send a dog in who's trained to pick up human scent. That'll give us a definite answer as to whether anyone's in there. The dogs are highly trained, even down to the fact that they wear little boots so they don't injure theirself on any sharps, glass. They're trained to work in those environments, pretty much like you'd see in an earthquake situation. MAN: Search dog. The dog will be looking for human scent. It will then indicate to the handler that he's got what we call a hit, which basically means he's found someone. And it's not just the residents the firefighters are struggling to find. We've got timber, brick, insulation. What's happened is, the insulation between the brick and the timber is smouldering. Eh? With flames now hidden inside the walls, crew manager Joe Munro is going up on a 106-foot aerial platform to find the fire. They need to get to the seat of the fire brick by brick. Smoke is hot, and you've got that coming out at you. That's the horrible thing with fire - it's a beast. It will grab whatever it can and not stop until we get there. As Alan controls the aerial platform, Joe hoses inside the wall with 2,300 litres of water per minute. All right, stay back. We are breaking the back of it now. There's a lot of smoke coming out. It's confined to a small area. With two of us up there and the equipment, it's not a big cage. You're limited to your movement. It seems like they've flooded it from above. It's a structural nightmare now. Yeah. There may be people still inside, and a final search is needed. This is a job for the more light- footed member of the crew, Kirby. There you go. In there. Good lad. If he catches a human scent inside, he'll stay in the building and bark to alert his handler, Terry. Well done, you. All right. That pretty much gives us the confidence we need to say that there's no-one else in there now. A number of flats are condemned, and the residents will have to leave. I'm just going to escort these ladies. Can you just flash it that way so I can see the block? Am I allowed? If you pick up what you need. Did you find the cat? I found the cat, he's in here. He's called Milton. Are you happy you found him? So happy, over the moon. Really happy. You're being so kind. Where are you going tonight, do you know? Holiday Inn, they booked us in. Thank you so much. Honestly, we really appreciate it. The cause of the explosion is part of an ongoing investigation. Well done, good effort. Thank you. It's been a challenging five hours for Alan and Joe. Every fire is different, every day is different, anything can happen. This is when we all come together and everyone starts working well together. If I didn't love my job, I wouldn't do it. The money's not great but the reward is unbelievable. Although tragically, people lost their homes, the Brigade was able to ensure there were no fatalities. WOMAN ON PHONE: Fire Brigade. MAN: Yes, I'm standing on the main road and I can see it billowing from behind the houses. The whole street is, like, kind of covered in smoke. The London Fire Brigade responds to over 20,000 fires each year caused by everything from a candle left burning to an electrical fault. WOMAN: Hiya. Can I have the Fire Brigade? A car is on fire. But more than ever, the Brigade is being called to road-traffic collisions. This year they've attended 4,500. Almost daily, specialist units are deployed to cut someone out of a car, as well as carrying out many other rescues. These units are strategically spread across London alongside conventional firefighting teams, ready to rush to an accident at a moment's notice. This unit, in Battersea, South London, is run by Edric Kennedy-Macfoy. Being in peak condition is key for their job. Tom, he keeps on telling me, 'Stop growing your biceps'. These are just natural. I hardly train but they just grew. (LAUGHS) You like that? Come on. All of London's 102 stations are equipped with gyms. We've got to ensure we're operationally ready for any eventuality that we may be faced with. Firefighter-fit and always ready. (LAUGHS) Firefighter Maguire. Sir. Firefighter McDonald. Sir. Firefighter O'Connor. Sir. Today Edric is starting a shift with his Blue Watch team. Firefighter (INDISTINCT). Sir. Blue Watch, position. Fall out. Station manager Dave Waterman is prepping his crew, ready for the first call. We've just come on duty, so we're testing the equipment on the appliance, doing inventory, everyone's getting ready. You see Dan over there, on the other side, you've got his twin brother, Mark. We sometimes mix the two of them up, obviously. (SIREN BURST) That's Tom. Tom's the driver of the front ladder. You can see, here's a fine figure of a man - an officer and a gentleman. Commander-in-chief. Apart from that, he's all ready to go. Edric heads up one of the three specialist rescue units serving London. This is it right here - the fire-rescue unit. This is my baby. It isn't your normal pumping appliance. We don't carry any water but what we do have is specialist equipment. We specialise in road-traffic collisions. We've got a boat for water rescues. We deal with everything but we've got no water media to extinguish any fire, that's not what we do. When people are trapped, rescue units across London get the call, and one has just come in. NEWSCASTER: News breaking - five people trapped, 40 people injured after a tram overturned in a tunnel in Croydon, South London. This from the LFB, London Fire Brigade. We'll get more details as soon as we can. Stations around the capital are being mobilised. The tram crash they're heading to is the UK's biggest transport incident since the 7/7 bombings, and involves a significant loss of life. * (CONTROLLERS TALK OVER RADIO) (SIREN) NEWSCASTER: It was shortly after six o'clock in the morning. 999 crews from across South London converged on Sandilands. In Croydon, South London, a tram has crashed. It's the biggest transport incident the emergency services have had to deal with in over a decade. NEWSCASTER: I am just east of Croydon in the Sandilands area. I'm standing just south of a huge police cordon. They've got police officers, fire engines, the lot. There are reported fatalities and many injured. Hundreds of firefighters from across London are on the scene. Nine miles away in Battersea, crew manager Edric and his specialist rescue unit are being mobilised. There are quite a few trapped casualties and deceased. We need to get there ASAP and do whatever we can to assist. Edric's team is heading to the crash as it enters a delicate phase. Their specialist skills are needed to retrieve the deceased from the wreckage. Just because a person is deceased doesn't mean you can just pick them up and throw them in a bag. We do everything carefully, and with love. Make your way up there, and see where the guys are standing, in orange? Straight down there is where the incident is. In my 11 years in this job, I've never witnessed anything on this scale. I've never been to a derailment before, this is my first one. Good morning. A number of people have been taken to hospital with injuries, and sadly, we can say, there has been some loss of life. We are working hard to assess... There are 51 people injured and the death toll stands at seven. The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, arrives to lend support to emergency workers. Many have already played their part, but the challenge for Edric and his team is just beginning. Right now, there are, I believe, two casualties, or two victims, still trapped. We need to release their bodies so we can send them off, basically. What's the plan for lifting it? Airbags on the side, lift it up, clear the bodies. It will be about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, possibly bordering on two hours before we do that. Battersea Blue Watch manager Dave Waterman oversees the teams. We're going to use heavy-lifting airbags to slightly lift the tram, pivot it on one point on that side to give us enough space to retrieve casualties. At the end of the day, that's someone's mum, dad, brother, sister. I like to show respect and deal with them as if I was dealing with one of my own. It's now 5pm, 11 hours after the tram derailed. Broken glass everywhere, twisted metal, the track itself. We've got to be very careful in our lift and in our removal of that casualty because the last thing we want to do is cause them any more harm. The fact that it's in a precarious position means that the distribution of the weight is going to be all over the place. Anything can happen. We've lifted the tram by 3" or 4", which has given us enough room to free the final two casualties. One has just been released and recovered from the train and the final one is about to be recovered. (REFLECTIVE MUSIC) What gets me is the fact that they woke up this morning and didn't know that today was going to be their last day. They didn't know they weren't going to see their family again and they didn't know they would meet such a tragic end. The fact that something like this can happen to anyone, it's quite scary, actually, isn't it? It was very graphic. Those are images that, you know, will stay with me for the rest of my life. I just want to make sure, guys, cos I know you've been here a long time. I really appreciate some of you have been here since the early hours of this morning. We've taken out the last of the fatalities. I want to get you all together, appreciative of your work, you've been here a long time. Yeah? Excellent. Let's go. I'm sure we'll go back to the station and talk about it. That helps to ease what you've seen. But, you know, this is life and death. (FIREWORKS POP) NEWSCASTER: LBC weather. Mostly clear for Bonfire Night, patchy cloud and light winds, a low of four degrees Celsius. After years of safety campaigns... ..Bonfire Night is often surprisingly quiet for fire crews, but not this evening. A call has just come in. MAN: Hello, Fire Brigade. MAN: Hello, it's a real emergency, we've got fire everywhere. WOMAN: OK, they're on their way now. There are reports of a large fire in a flat in North London. When there's a big incident, borough commanders like Richard Welch, also known as Rocky, are called in. As a group manager, I'll go to incidents of four fire engines or more. (SWITCHES ON SIREN) From the time the pager goes off, the adrenalin starts. You're thinking about what you expect to see when you get there. We know this is a fire in a domestic property. The fact that we've got six fire engines there means it's quite a substantial fire. As Richard arrives, there are now eight fire engines and nearly 60 firefighters at the scene. Can we get a map up of this area, just so we can see? With any serious incident, operations are run from a mobile command unit. From here, Richard coordinates the firefighters and local traffic. There must be... Station. This is a 24-hour route, this road here. No water has gone on lower ground, it's not going either side. The lower ground is gone. There's nothing to save down there. Cos we've got a fire on the lower ground floor and the first floor, as you can see, smoke is getting pushed through the building. As commander, at my level, you're often not the one in the fire. It's a lot of responsibility. We have injuries cos it's a dangerous job. But my responsibility is to make sure firefighters go home at the end of the day. Flames are now raging at the rear of the flat, but fire engines can't reach it. We need to get some water down here. We need two machines at the front of the building. Over. Fire spreads in seconds, so we need to get water in as quickly as possible. We've got no water here. We need a machine to supply water. At the minute, we don't know if anyone's inside or what caused the fire I hope to God there's no-one in it. * It's Bonfire Night. A flat in North London is ablaze, and it's feared the owners are trapped inside. The fire has spread to the back but firefighters can't get a pump to it. We need to get a hose. A hose. Borough Commander Richard Welch is overseeing the teams. With occupants missing, he's sending in firefighters wearing breathing apparatus, or BA. We'll get a board set up. 601, receiving. The windows have failed, there's a lot of flame coming out of the back. The problem round the back is access. We need to get a fire engine as close as we can to supply water to fight the fire round the back. Finally, the crew get some good news. I spoke to a member of the police. They've spoke to one of the local residents. They believe the occupiers are on holiday and not in. Being on holiday, thousands of miles away, it must be absolutely awful for them, not knowing what's happening. But the danger to other residents is by no means over. It's really important we get water to the fire as quickly as possible. London is a very built-up area, a lot of properties close together, so fire can spread really quickly. (SIREN) We're in the process of getting some water here. We're still waiting for water. Over. Every second counts when it comes to us getting water from the hydrant to the fire. Knock it down quick, get in as far as you can, let me know what's going on. I'll commit crews above you after it's out. You've got another blaze on your left, on your left. Ultimately, fire is a killer, and it's a breathing, living thing. If you take it for granted, that's when injuries and accidents happen. Richard's team is battling temperatures in excess of 600 degrees Celsius. Come back, come lower. That fire right above your head, it's going up the stairwell. Yeah, get down. Stay down. Get down. Up the stairwell. (WATER SPRAYS) Yeah, go ahead, guv. After two-and-a-half hours of hosing, the flames are finally dying out. It's thought the fire was started by a firework thrown into the back of the flat. Around Bonfire Night, young people find fireworks quite exciting but don't always realise the dangers that go with them. If it's house fires, they lose things they can't ever replace, and that's priceless. The blessing was that nobody was in there, nobody got injured. That's the most important thing. I want to get home cos I left the front door open! (LAUGHS) I ran out. (RISING MUSIC) NEWSCASTER: The Croydon tram service was back in operation but the area around the derailment remained sealed off as rail-accident branch inspectors and forensic teams continue their investigation. In Battersea, Edric and Blue Watch are together for the first time since the tram crash. All firefighters are offered counselling, but many prefer to deal with it amongst themselves. You'd see that type of incident a handful of times in a 30-year career. I struggled a bit yesterday, personally, but collectively, as a team, we worked well together, and I'm... Yeah, proud of all of you boys who attended. It did get to me when you see, like, their mobile phones. They're on the floor, lighting up with people trying to call them. Obviously, you can't touch them. They're trying to find out about their loved ones. It makes it that little bit more personal. And their IDs, you know, handbags, identification. When I picked up an ID and read out the name, it just made it even more real for me then because that's a person. Dealing with what we have to deal with... ..just knowing you've got the support of your colleagues, your friends behind you, that makes all the difference. There was a group of deceased that were... You could see they were probably standing next to each other on the tram. You may get on the train at the same time, see the same people every day, and now you see these people in that position. It's... It's thought-provoking, you know. But you can't be morbid all the time. You have to have... ALARM: Mobilise. Mobilise. Mobilise. Today is a different day. It could happen again. You've just got to make each day count. In this job, camaraderie is very important. We're a team, at the end of the day. We've got each other's back. We get each other through. (SIREN) Subtitles by Deluxe www.able.co.nz