This is the BBC. This is the Grenfell Tower Inquiry podcast, a new podcast every day the inquiry sits.

I'm Eddie Mayor. Today was the final day of opening statements and we heard from representatives of the fire brigade.

Sangita Maiska, as always, has been there for us. San Gita this week we've heard quite a few people criticise the emergency

response on the night of the fire. Yes, and most of that criticism has come from the

bereaved survivors and residents. What's been changing over the course of the months since the

disaster and certainly what became clear this week was how the actions of the firefighters

on the night are now being

perceived. In the days and weeks after the disaster, the firefighters were heroes and heroines

who'd risked their lives to save residents. That fact has continued to be recognised in the opening

statements from the survivors, but alongside that, serious questions have now been raised as to why the

fire service was not better prepared and why on that fatal night it continued to tell residents

to stay put. Finally, there was that controversial suggestion by one of the lawyers that the fire

service may be institutionally racist. Here's some of that criticism.

The delay in telling us to evacuate nearly killed us,

and it did kill my baby son.

The overriding conclusion to be derived from the 999 transcripts that we have seen

is that the control room was deprived of essential operational information

about the drama and the scale of

events unfolding on the ground. Some firefighters were getting their information as to what was

happening on the night from children, as to use their words, their English was much better.

It is beyond argument, quotes, unquote, that many more would have survived than did survive

if the state policy had been abandoned at 126 AM.

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