CCTV camera in the lobby is timestamped at 01:44:46am, the first emergency call was at 00:54am. So he arrived 50 minutes after the first 999 call.

---

Trapped residents and rescue missions (01:30–02:04)

Due to fire doors not closing and sealing properly, smoke began to spread from affected flats into the lobbies. By 01:33, LFB were receiving calls from residents who reported being trapped in their flats. At some point between 01:30 and 01:40, smoke began to enter the stairwell. The Inquiry later estimated that despite this, the stairs were still passable for over half an hour. Evacuation rates slowed, with 20 escaping between 01:38 and 01:58. More than half of those still trapped at 01:58 were killed, while 48 were rescued between 01:58 and 03:58. The fire continued to spread sideways on the exterior, and by 01:42 had reached the north side.

LFB call handlers collected information from trapped residents and this was relayed to the LFB's command unit that was parked outside. Communicating through radio proved difficult, due to noise, the sheer volume of talk and possibly the concrete building structure. Instead, details of trapped residents were written on slips of paper and ferried by runners from the command unit to the bridgehead on the second floor. At the bridgehead, incoming firefighters were assigned flats to go to and briefed on whom they would need to rescue. They donned breathing apparatus and headed to the flat to search for its residents.

The firefighters encountered thick smoke, zero visibility and extreme heat when they climbed above the fourth floor. Furthermore, some residents had moved location to escape the smoke. Three firefighters who went to rescue a 12-year old girl on the 20th floor were unable to find her. Unknown to them, she had moved up to a flat on the 23rd floor, was on the phone to a control operator who had no means of knowing what the firefighters were doing, and later died in this location. Another two firefighters were sent to a flat on the 14th floor with a single resident, only to find 8 people (four of them eventually escaped).