Since the question of the possible influence of the crews 'culture' has arisen I make the following point; I was a captain with SIA for ten years and it is my belief that there would have been absolutely no delay to an evacuation decision by the Captain unless he was receiving advice from the fire fighters. As a qualified fire fighter said, earlier in this thread, had the doors opened and the slides deployed the foam delivering appliances would have had to back off and leave the fire, which may then have spread to the slides, as it was they were able to knock it down in good time.