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London’s Grenfell Tower fire the result of ‘decades of failure’
The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, in which 72 people died, was the result of “decades of failure” by the government and the construction industry, according to a damning inquiry report published on Wednesday. The deaths “were all preventable,” retired judge Martin Moore-Bick, who led the report, said as he released its findings. “We have lost friends, neighbours and loved ones in the most horrific way, through greed, corruption, incompetence and neglect,” said Natasha Elcock, chair of victims’ group Grenfell United. The government will ensure that this “can never happen again”, promised Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who presented an apology to parliament “on behalf of the British state”. Seventy-two people died on June 14, 2017 in the worst residential fire in Great Britain since the Second World War. It took less than half an hour to spread to the entire 24-storey tower block occupied by generally modest families, in an upscale district of west London. The public body in charge of the tower, KCTMO, admitted on Wednesday that it had “contributed” to the tragedy and said it was “deeply sorry”. But seven years later, victims are demanding a judicial response, which is expected to take several more years. This fire is “a national disgrace”, denounced the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. – “Systematic dishonesty” – According to the final inquiry report, it is “the culmination of decades of failures by government and other bodies with senior positions in the construction industry”. The report also highlights the “systematic dishonesty” of building materials companies. They adopted “deliberate strategies … to manipulate the testing process, distort data and mislead the market”, the report accuses. The firefighters of the London Fire Brigade are also heavily criticised for not having learned the lessons of a previous fire in 2009, which “should have alerted (them)” to their difficulties “in fighting fires in high-rise buildings”. Entire families were trapped in the flames in Grenfell Tower. Among them was that of Abdulaziz El-Wahabi, 52, who died with his wife Faouzia, 41, and their three children, the youngest of whom was eight. Residents who called emergency services were told to stay in their flats and wait for help. The advice was widely criticised and has since been revised. The first phase of the inquiry, published in October 2019, concluded that the cladding on the façade was the “main cause” of the fire’s spread. The disaster left many people living in buildings with similar cladding fearing another tragedy. – ‘Behind bars’ – Seven years on from the tragedy, grieving parents and survivors continue to call for justice, expressing anger at the slow pace of the process. “I want arrests. I want the people responsible for the deaths to be behind bars,” said Calvin Benson of victims’ group Justice4Grenfell. “We want justice. I’m here for justice,” Miriam, a fire survivor who lost several family members, said in tears at a news conference. “We know who is responsible. (…) There is nothing new in seven years,” criticized another woman, who lost three relatives. “So far we have been denied justice. This delay has caused us great harm. It has contributed to the denial of our rights,” said Karim, whose sister Khadija died in the fire. Victims want to see charges for manslaughter. But London police have warned they will not be able to produce their report until the end of 2025. Prosecutors will then need a year to decide whether to bring criminal charges. “Due to the volume of evidence and the complexity of the investigation, we will need to take the necessary time … before making final decisions on charging,” the Crown Prosecutor’s Office (CPS) warned on Wednesday. har-ctx-adm/bd/sk
