Grenfell Inferno ‘culmination of decades of failure’: UK inquiry

LONDON: The catastrophic Grenfell Tower fire in the UK that killed 72 people was the result of “decades of neglect” by government and construction industry institutions and “systematic dishonesty” by building materials companies, a final report published on Wednesday (4 September) said.

Revealing the devastating findings of an independent inquiry into the 2017 tragedy, the inquiry’s chairman Martin Moore-Bick said all the deaths were “avoidable” and that the victims had “suffered a complete failure”.

He added that some of those who contributed to the disaster had demonstrated “incompetence” as well as “dishonesty and greed.”

A fire that broke out in the early hours of 14 June 2017 spread quickly through a 24-storey block of flats in west London due to flammable wall cladding attached to its exterior.

The fire started in a faulty freezer on the fourth floor and within half an hour spread to the top floor of the building, causing catastrophic consequences.

The report marks the end of a long-running investigation into the UK’s worst house fire since World War II.

The article was sharply critical of successive governments and other influential bodies, as well as the architects, who rebuilt Grenfell, which resulted in the installation of cladding and other dangerous materials.

The report particularly condemned companies supplying facade panels and other insulation products.

They were accused of “systematic dishonesty” and found to have “engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate testing processes, misrepresent test data, and mislead the marketplace.”

“FRAUD AND MURDERERS”

Following the report’s publication, Grenfell United, which represents some survivors and victims, called on the government to take urgent action.

“The government must now take control of this sector to prevent further destruction of public safety, which was once its primary mandate, not aiding and abetting crooks and killers,” the statement said.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised his government would “carefully consider the report and its recommendations to ensure a tragedy like this cannot happen again”.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Grenfell residents had “paid the price of systemic dishonesty, corporate greed and institutional indifference and neglect”.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) has also come under heavy criticism, with its senior officers described as “smug”.

The service said it had failed to ensure the dangers posed by the increasingly widespread use of cladding “were communicated to the wider organisation and reflected in training”.

It also failed to learn from the previous fire in 2009, which “should have made the LFB aware of the shortcomings in its ability to extinguish fires in high-rise buildings”.

Residents who called the emergency number were ordered to stay in their apartments and wait for help to arrive for almost two hours after the fire broke out.

Men, women and children, including entire family groups, were trapped in their homes and died. This “stay put” advice, now believed to have cost lives, has since been reversed.

The youngest victims of the tragedy were a dead child and a six-month-old infant, Leena Belkadi, found with her mother in a stairwell between the 19th and 20th floors.

DANGEROUS BUILDINGS

This disaster has left many people living in buildings covered with similar cladding fearing a similar tragedy.

Homeowners also faced financial problems as their homes became unsaleable.

In 2022, the then Conservative government announced that developers would have to contribute more to the cost of waste removal, while residents of buildings over 11m high would not have to pay at all.

But a fire in Dagenham, east London, less than a week ago highlighted the risks that still exist.

More than 80 people had to be evacuated in the middle of the night after they woke up in a block of flats where work to remove “non-compliant” cladding had only been partially completed.

London Fire Brigade Commissioner Andy Roe said there were still about 1,300 buildings in London alone that needed urgent repair work.

CRIMINAL CHARGES?

Grenfell United said they expect police and prosecutors to “ensure that those actually responsible are brought to justice”.

However, London’s Metropolitan Police said its investigators would need until the end of 2025 to complete their own investigation.

And the Prosecutor General’s Office said after publishing the report that decisions on potential criminal proceedings are not expected for another two years.

Citing the “volume of evidence and the complexity of the investigation”, Frank Ferguson of the CPS said the team of specialist prosecutors “will not be able to make a charging decision before the end of 2026”.

For former Grenfell Tower resident Edward Daffarn, such a long delay is unacceptable.

“We do not intend to wait much longer and this report must be the catalyst for the Metropolitan Police to take decisive action to prosecute those responsible for the deaths of 72 people,” he said earlier.