A firefighter took a selfie in front of a smouldering Grenfell Tower shortly after 72 people had been killed inside and used it for his Tinder profile picture.
The shocking incident was revealed by Nazir Afzal, the former chief crown prosecutor for the North West tasked with carrying out an independent culture review of the London Fire Brigade.
His findings that there were ‘dangerous levels of ingrained prejudice against women’, with minority colleagues ‘frequently the target of racist abuse’ led to the LFB being put into special measures back in December.
Mr Afzal told the panel that staff are still coming forward to give evidence months after his report was submitted.
Giving an example, he said: ‘In the immediate aftermath of Grenfell when the fire has just been raging a male firefighter had a selfie taken of himself outside the building which he then used as his Tinder profile.
‘He was quickly told to get rid of it, he was subsequently, I understand, given words of warning.
‘The question you have to ask yourself is how did he feel entitled to do that?
‘Why did he feel entitled to do that? When 72 lives have been lost in the building, including 18 children. And he felt what was more important was how he would look to other women on his social media site.’
Mr Afzal also referred back to an Instagram page called ‘Hoses and Helmets’, which bills itself as a ‘Fire Brigade banter and community’, that is still posting ‘sexist, misogynistic, hate-filled behaviour’.
Recalling the process of interviewing witnesses, he said it had been ‘really quite painful hearing the experiences of people within the fire service’.
Highlighting one day when nine women gave their accounts one after another, the hardened former top prosecutor said: ‘At the end of the day, having run out of tissues given the amount of emotion that was in the room, I then sought counselling because of what I’d been hearing.
‘I think, given I’m on an al Qaeda hit list and have had far-right thugs attacking my house, that would give you some sense as to how impactful those stories were on me.’
Of the roughly 450 female staff in the LFB, Mr Afzal said he had spoken to around 150.
‘With hardly any exceptions, women told us they had been suffering sexual abuse, sexual harassment, what was described by people to them as banter which wasn’t, that they felt scared, they felt they weren’t being treated equally,’ he said.
Some of them were told – and I hate to use the language but I’ll use the language – to FIFO, to ‘fit in or f**k off’. And that experience was across the board with women in the organisation, whichever rank and whichever position they were in.’
He told the panel women were told they were ‘not wanted’, that ‘the fire service wasn’t for them’ and that the ‘equipment wasn’t made for them’.
An LFB spokesperson said in response to Mr Afzal’s revelation: ‘In 2018, the Brigade took disciplinary action against a member of staff who used an entirely inappropriate photograph on a dating profile.
‘We understand how devastating this would be for the Grenfell community and apologise sincerely for his behaviour.’
London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe told the panel he ‘seeks to deny nothing in this report’, adding: ‘It was humiliating to me to see what I suspected exposed with such terrible extremity and such powerful evidence. But what it gives me is an absolute platform for change.
‘I did not have to call Nazir in, there was no political pressure to, there wasn’t a continual leaking of stories, but I felt I had no choice because I could see all the things I love about the fire brigade were being undermined by level of behaviour I could simply not tolerate.’
He said the LFB had shown it can change in the aftermath of Grenfell and insisted ‘we can certainly do it in this case’.
In response to the service being moved into enhanced monitoring, he said in December: ‘I recognised that LFB’s culture needed to improve, which is why I commissioned the independent culture review and took immediate actions when it was published.
‘Our external complaints service is supporting colleagues, and a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination, harassment and bullying means all staff know what behaviours aren’t tolerated.
‘Change is happening now, and the face-to-face meetings I’ve been having with firefighters and other staff shows there is a passion to make sure our culture works for everyone.
‘We welcome the additional support as part of the inspectorate’s enhanced monitoring programme and I look forward to working with them and other partners to monitor progress and change in the future.’
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