Grenfell Tower fire: Andy Roe appointed new London Fire Brigade (LFB) boss - BBC News
Andy Roe replaces Dany Cotton who quit LFB after criticism over the Grenfell fire operation.
A former British Army officer, Andy Roe has been at LFB since 2002

London's new fire commissioner has been announced after the brigade's current chief stood down over criticisms of how it responded to the Grenfell fire.

Andy Roe takes over from Dany Cotton from January after she announced last week she was stepping down.

Mr Roe was the fire officer who revoked the "stay put" advice minutes after becoming incident commander at the Grenfell Tower fire.

Seventy-two people died during the tower block fire on 14 June 2017.

Ms Cotton announced last week that she would step down at the end of December after facing pressure to resign after a critical public inquiry report into the fire.

An inquiry into the fire concluded "many more lives" could have been saved if the advice to residents to "stay put" had been abandoned earlier than 02:35 BST.

It said London Fire Brigades's (LFB) preparations for such a fire were "gravely inadequate".

Dany Cotton, second from right, in Grenfell Tower on the night of the fire

Mr Roe will be tasked with implementing the Grenfell Tower Inquiry's recommendations as well as producing the next London Safety Plan, which outlines how the brigade will make London safe.

As well as being deputy commissioner for operations at the brigade, Mr Roe is a former British Army officer. He joined LFB in 2002 as a firefighter and has been assistant commissioner since 2017. He was in charge of the response to the Croydon tram crash in 2016.

Dany Cotton is stepping down at the end of December

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the brigade's overall response to the disaster had been "not good enough", and there were "significant lessons".

The inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire opened in September 2017

Mr Roe said: "We have some real challenges ahead, but I'll be working tirelessly with the brigade, the mayor and London's communities to ensure we deliver on the recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report."

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