98 The Control Room Operators
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Podcast
BBC
4.8 • 627 Ratings
🗓️ 23 November 2018
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The inquiry heard from Call Room Operators Yvonne Adams, Christine Howson and Heidi Fox.
Yvonne Adams took a call from a woman trapped on the 14th floor who pleaded with her to send for help.
Christine Howson said it was so noisy in the control room that she found it difficult to hear callers.
Listen to the full story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066rd9t
Producer Elisabeth Mahy Researcher Olivia Beazley Contact us via email: [email protected]
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.4 | Hello, this is the Grenfell Tower Inquiry podcast, reporting every day the inquiry sits. |
| 0:10.6 | I'm Katie Razel. |
| 0:12.1 | Three witnesses gave evidence to the inquiry today. |
| 0:15.3 | They were all 999 control room operators based in East London on the night of the fire. |
| 0:20.6 | Yvonne Adams had been a control room operator for 45 years at on the night of the fire. Yvonne Adams had been a |
| 0:21.7 | control room operator for 45 years at the time of Grenfell. Just before 1 o'clock, the first 999 call |
| 0:28.5 | came into the control room. At 121, Yvonne Adams answered a call from someone in flat 195 on the 22nd |
| 0:35.9 | floor who said she could smell smoke. |
| 0:38.5 | Yvonne Adams said she did not pass the information from that call onto firefighters on the ground at Grenfell. |
| 0:44.5 | Lead counsel to the inquiry Richard Millett wanted to know why. |
| 0:47.9 | Do I take it from that that you didn't think it would be helpful for the incident ground to know |
| 0:51.8 | about a report of the smell of smoke? |
| 0:53.7 | Yeah. |
| 0:56.3 | Even though it was right at the top of the building? |
| 0:58.2 | Well, they was there. |
| 0:59.4 | They could see what was happening, so providing their in attendance, maybe if they |
| 1:04.8 | wasn't in attendance, then I might have considered sending them a message. |
| 1:09.3 | You know, someone received a further call to, you know, smell of smoke. |
| 1:12.9 | But as they was there and dealing with the fire, |
| 1:15.8 | it didn't seem relevant on that one. |
| 1:19.0 | Richard Millett asked about another call she took at 129 |
... |
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