89 Inspector Thatcher and Commander Jerome
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Podcast
BBC
4.8 • 627 Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2018
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today the inquiry heard from the two most senior police officers to attend the fire.
Inspector Nicholas Thatcher declared the fire a Major Incident shortly before arriving at the scene. Today he told the inquiry how he was afraid the tower would collapse onto members of the public watching from the ground.
Commander Neil Jerome, chief officer on-call in London on the night of the fire, also gave evidence.
Producers Kate Lamble and Elisabeth Mahy Researcher Olivia Beazley Contact us via email: [email protected]
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Hello, I'm Eddie Mayor and this is the Grenfell Tower Inquiry podcast, reporting every day the inquiry sits. |
| 0:11.6 | Inspector Nicholas Thatcher described how he lost hope when residents were told to leave the tower. |
| 0:18.0 | It had become clear the fire at Grenfell was out of control. |
| 0:21.6 | You knew what it was. It was a death sentence. You just knew they were, and you could see them. |
| 0:27.6 | Sorry. You could still see them. I just couldn't go. |
| 0:33.9 | He answered questions from lead counsel to the inquiry, Richard Millett. |
| 0:42.9 | In June 2017, Inspector Nicholas Thatcher had been a police officer for 23 years. |
| 0:48.7 | He'd been trained to deal with major incidents where many different emergency services have to work together. |
| 0:59.0 | Was there any training in the management of major incidents involving a large-scale fire? Not a fire. They did use two case studies. One was the Croydon tram crash, which had happened shortly before this training |
| 1:05.6 | was brought in. And one was a particularly nasty car crash on the M4 that involved some hazardous substances. |
| 1:14.3 | Oh, it sounds as if that training did not involve a major incident in a densely populated urban area. |
| 1:19.9 | No. |
| 1:20.7 | Or a large-scale fire per se? |
| 1:22.7 | Not that I remember. |
| 1:23.7 | Let alone a high-rise block. |
| 1:25.2 | Definitely not. |
| 1:26.3 | Around 115, he was on duty in his car in Chelsea |
| 1:29.5 | when he heard a call that there was a fire at Grenfell Tower. |
| 1:33.2 | Six fire engines were in attendance. |
| 1:35.6 | He started to drive over. |
| 1:37.5 | If you had been told shortly after six pumps |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.