A FIREFIGHTER from Hereford has emerged as one of the heroes of the Grenfell Tower disaster in June 2017.

Richard Evans, from Redhill, who is based at London Lambert fire station, told the inquiry into the tragedy that he was one of the firefighters dispatched to the 23rd floor of the 24-storey building.

This led to the former Kingstone High School pupil saving the lives of two residents, mother-and-son Flora and Farhad Neda.

"We were told to go up to the 23rd floor, flat 205," he told the inquiry. "My brief was multiple people in flat 205 on the 23rd floor, no further information was given."

Firefighter Evans, who said he had never attended a high-rise fire as a firefighter before the Grenfell Tower fire, was paired with Firefighter Gemma Bloxham to make the stairwell ascent.

"We were initially delayed going up the stairwell because of the amount of people coming down the stairs carrying casualties," he said in his statement to the inquiry.

"I was trying to remain focused, remember my training and reminding myself of what I needed to do.

"This was the first point I remember thinking: 'This is big, this is dangerous'."

FF Evans said that by the time they reached floor nine, smoke was so thick and dark that visibility was zero although this did improve.

"We continued going up the stairwell and visibility remained restricted," he said.

"I think it was between the 18th and 20th floors when FF Bloxham tapped me and pointed out two casualties, one being female in her 40s, the other casualty was a male, younger look.

"We took them from the stairwell in through the lobby doorway and sat them down against a wall. The only information we could get from them was that 'there were an unspecified number of people on one of the floors above'; there was no information on where those people were or which flat they were from."

The two firefighters decided that they should take their two casualties out rather than proceed higher, on the basis that the Nedas would probably not have made it out by themselves.

"I know this was reasonable as the female casualty became unconscious while we were taking them out," said FF Evans.

All four made it back to the ground safely.

FF Evans admitted to the inquiry that he had broken a policy by going beyond the fire level.

"It was a dynamic risk assessment and decisions were made there and then," he said. "This is what you get trained and paid for and you have your own moral value to go and do it.

"You always try to read the situation and weight up your own and the fire condition and what you have been told to do, whether it is achievable or not.

"The one thing I regret and wished I had done differently was to have pushed harder to try and get back into the building to help more people."

Flora and Farhad Neda were the only survivors from the 23rd floor of the building but Mr Neda's father Mohamed, who had remained in the family's flat, died in the tragedy.