If JRM was in a fire he'd wet his Eton issue bloomers and wait for Nanny to take control. Andrew Bridgen would not fare much better.
But that's neither here nor there.
What these men don't seem to understand is: People are not stupid for following fire brigade advice - and that isn't because they are weak, or lack authority or are naturally meek little followers, it is because being in a fire is not an everyday occurrence, it's probably your first time in one, it's very dangerous and very frightening - so the sensible thing to do is what the people who deal with fires everyday tell you is the best course of action.
And of course - if Grenfell had been up to code, the fire brigade's advice would have been the sensible action. Neither the fire brigade or the residents of Grenfell are to blame (and certainly aren't stupid) because crooked builders and local councils short changed them.
People who panic and don't follow fire brigade advice aren't stupid either - their reaction is completely understandable. And anybody who hasn't experienced a fire first hand is in no place to judge - as they have no idea how they would react in the same situation. You don't know until you're tested - and no one actually wants to be tested.
People who don't know fire brigade advice (because who would ever think to look it up - no one thinks this will ever happen to them) aren't stupid either. They will make a snap decision - probably to flee... however in the dark, with countless flights of stairs and the air thick with smoke - they might end up opening their front door and swiftly changing their minds, staying put and inadvertently following fire brigade advice. Not knowing and so following your instinct is not stupid - and it is not your fault if that instinct leads you wrong especially if you are in a building that violates health and safety standards
The people who are stupid, however, are the arrogant arseholes who think they know better than the experts - who ignore advice not because they genuinely don't know what it is, but because they think they know better; who don't understand the difference hindsight makes in deciding what you would have done in x position; who somehow believe - without ever being tested - that they will respond calmly and logically in an emergency situation and therefore are better than the people who did not act this way, and who don't have the imagination to consider that - when opening your front door and being confronted with darkness, thick smoke and flames - slamming your door and backing away probably does seem like the sensible reaction at that time.
People like this are not only stupid but are dangerously so. No empathy, no imagination and a towering self belief, without the competence or experience to back it up - that is the shit that gets people killed.