British Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded by promising that the government would ensure that this “can never happen again.
Damning findings. The Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017, in which 72 people died, was the result of “decades of failure” by government and construction industry bodies, according to an inquiry report published on Wednesday (September 4).
The fire was “the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies with senior management positions in the construction industry,” the inquiry’s chairman, Martin Moore-Bick, concluded.
The final report into Britain’s worst house fire since the Second World War also highlighted “systematic dishonesty” by building materials companies.
“The simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all preventable, and that those who lived in the tower were seriously betrayed for years… by those who were responsible for the safety of the building and its occupants,” said the retired former judge, presenting the findings of the inquiry.
For his part, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded by promising that the government will ensure that this “can never happen again”.
Critiques
On June 14, 2017, 72 people died in this fire which took less than half an hour to spread throughout this 24-storey tower block occupied by generally modest families in west London.
The cause? A highly combustible façade cladding. Led by retired judge Martin Moore-Bick, the latest phase of the inquiry aims to understand how a fire, initially small in magnitude, was able to spread so quickly.
Entire families were trapped in the flames. Among them was that of Abdulaziz El-Wahabi, 52, who died with his wife Faouzia, 41, and their three children, the youngest of whom, Mehdi, was eight. The youngest victims were a stillborn child and a six-month-old baby, Leena Belkadi, found with her mother in a stairwell between the 19th and 20th floors.
Residents who called emergency services were told to stay in their apartments and wait for help. The advice, which was widely criticised, has since been revised.
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