Is the fire brigade to blame for Grenfell Tower deaths?

Analysis: May Bulman looks at the implications of the public inquiry’s first report on the fatal blaze

Related: RBKC council leader Elizabeth Campbell said she had never visited a high-rise council block in 2017 (PA)

We were hoping they would save us because we trusted them,” said Grenfell survivor Paulos Tekle, whose five-year-old son Isaac perished in the blaze. He was talking about the firefighters who he says told his family to remain in their 18th-floor flat as flames engulfed the west London tower block. Several hours later, Isaac died after becoming separated from his parents as they tried to flee down the smoke-filled staircase.

Mr Tekle believes that, had he been told to leave his flat on the night of the fire, his son would still be alive. Anger over the “stay put” policy is shared by survivors and bereaved relatives, eight of whom spoke at a press conference following the publication of the first report from the public inquiry on Wednesday. They called on the London Fire Brigade (LFB) to “put their hands up and accept responsibility” for the fatalities, with some saying senior fire officers should face prosecution.

This focus on the firefighters’ response was also reflected in the inquiry report, which found that some of the 72 people who died in the fire may still be alive if the LFB had not stuck so rigidly to its “stay put” policy – based on the premise that highrise buildings can be expected to contain a fire in the apartment where it started, a principle known as “compartmentation” – and evacuated people instead.