Grenfell victims’ families say fire brigade bosses 'should be prosecuted'

Relatives of people who died in the Grenfell Tower fire in England have called for an overhaul of the London Fire Brigade, saying its top brass should resign and even face prosecution.

At an emotional press conference, family members of 20 victims of the inferno severely criticised the emergency response, saying a lot of lives could have been saved if the “stay put” policy had been abandoned earlier.

Nazanin Aghlani, who lost two family members in the blaze, said some firefighters displayed a “serious lack of common sense” and failed to see “what was so vivid in front of them”.

She said: “If a fire happened tonight the same thing would happen again.

“We look at firefighters as heroes, they’re actually paid professionals.

“I think it’s quite evident that the whole LFB … is in the hands of people that are incapable of their jobs. They should be discharged of it.

“They’re responsible for a lot of lives and they don’t care much.

“They should be prosecuted. I’m not saying individual firemen, they do a hard job… but the seniors at the top get good money to do a very serious job.”

Her father Shah Aghlani, whose mother Sakina Afrasehabi and aunt Fatima Afrasehabi died, compared LFB commander Dany Cotton’s comment that she would not do anything differently with an army general doing the same after returning from a heavy defeat.

He said: “You come back with a lot of dead people and that’s not good enough. There has to be a complete overhaul of the system.

“I think today everyone who has been in charge of the LFB should examine their role” and act to bring about the “change that’s so badly needed”.

Ms Cotton has said she regrets causing offence to victims with her remarks.

Nabil Choucair, who lost six family members, said: “We saw how you (firefighters) failed and you should have put the fire out, but knowing that you couldn’t tackle a fire that was bigger than you could imagine… you should’ve implemented a rescue plan a lot earlier.

“If we could see this and experienced fire commanders could not see this… why could they not see it? Why did they not react? Where was the common sense?”

Ms Cotton has resisted calls for her to resign, telling Sky News: “I can understand that the people of Grenfell are hurting and the people of Grenfell want somebody to be accountable, I absolutely understand that.

“What’s been important for me, and continues to be important for me, is that we are putting steps in place to change things, we are learning.

“We’ve identified our own areas that we’ve been concerned about way before the inquiry.

“It’s important for me that I continue to protect the people of London by putting those steps in place and developing LFB and by resigning now that would not happen.”

Asked about accusations she was “criminally negligent”, Ms Cotton told Sky News: “I think it is right that the police are the ones who will look into that.

“We are fully cooperating with the police. We’ve supplied them with interviews and we’ve obviously been interviewed under caution and that’s right and proper.”

Scotland Yard has ruled out bringing charges until after the next stage of the inquiry.