Barwell had told lawmakers that the government meant to review fire safety standards following a deadly blaze at the Lakanal House high-rise building in south London in 2009, in which three women and three children died.
"So although we've been up there we haven't managed to do a comprehensive search and until we can make the building safe then I really don't want to risk the safety of my firefighters at this moment in time", she said.
One focus for the investigation will be the building's cladding, which TV architect George Clarke said may have accelerated the blaze.
The fire early Wednesday in the 24-story building in west London's North Kensington district also injured dozens, 18 of them critically, and left an unknown number missing. In one chilling blog post from last November, the Grenfell Action Group warned that only a "catastrophic event" would "bring an end to the unsafe living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation" at the building.
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday ordered a full public inquiry into the blaze amid growing public anxiety about whether similar fires could occur in other housing blocks around the country.
Delaney also said that he isn't sure if he and others outside the building should have tried to wake sleeping residents as the fire blazed, because it was too late to help them. Some jumped to their deaths rather than face the flames, and witnesses reported seeing small children thrown from the tower by their families in a desperate bid to survive.
Many people are unaccounted for and firefighters are continuing to tackle "pockets of fire", with the operation now in the "recovery phase".
The 8.7 million pound ($11.08 million) refurbishment was completed previous year.
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They captioned the image: "Just spotted @Adele and Simon Konecki visiting the Grenfell Tower, she was dressed in an abaya". Metropolitan Police Chief, Commander Stuart Cundy has called the fire unprecedented.
A blog post from Grenfell Action Group in November said "only a catastrophic event" would expose residents' concerns.
It is not clear if the document represented the final design used in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey 1970s apartment block which is home to hundreds of residents, or whether fire barriers recommended by industry bodies were installed.
Mike Gilmartin, director of Omega Fire Engineering, said that to meet requirements, a building must have residential sprinklers and fire alarms in every apartment, as well as other features such as a firefighting shaft. Cladding was added during the recent renovations.
She said early Thursday that authorities have finally extinguished the last pockets of flame, and are trying to secure edges of the building for a fingertip search. And sometimes words fail us because no words can do justice to how we feel, or what we have seen or what has happened.
Survivors told of frantic attempts to escape during the fire. In this case, however, the fire seemed to climb the exterior of the tower so quickly that it overwhelmed protective systems like fire doors.
More than £1 million has been raised to help those affected by the fire, while volunteers and charities helped feed and shelter people who could not return to their homes overnight.
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