The final report of a public inquiry found that the deaths in the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London could have been avoided, with blame placed on the government, local authorities, the construction industry and, in particular, companies involved in the manufacture and installation of the flammable cladding.
A fire in a 23-storey building in the London borough of North Kensington, which broke out after midnight on 13-14 June 2017, killed 72 people. It was the deadliest residential fire in the UK since World War II. The rapid spread of the fire was caused by the building's flammable cladding.
“The truth is that all these deaths could have been avoided,” chairman Martin Moore-Bick wrote in the nearly 1,700-page final report of the six-year public inquiry.
The report placed the greatest responsibility for the disaster on companies involved in the maintenance and reconstruction of the tower, as well as companies that fraudulently sold flammable cladding materials as safe.
Much criticism has also been directed at the then Government, the Kensington and Chelsea local authority, regulators, individuals and the ill-prepared fire service over years of inaction on fire safety in high-rise buildings.
“Not all of them bear equal responsibility for the ultimate disaster, but as our reports show, all contributed in one way or another, in most cases through incompetence, but in some cases through dishonesty and greed,” Moore-Bick wrote. He added that the tragedy was “the culmination of decades of neglect, with profits placed before human safety.”
The investigation found a laundry list of failings. Lessons from previous tower block fires were not learned and testing systems were inadequate, but the report singled out US company Arconic, maker of Reynobond 55 cladding, as having, according to experts called by the investigation, “made the biggest contribution to the fire by deliberately concealing the true extent of the dangers associated with using its product”.
The manufacturer made “false and misleading representations regarding its safety and suitability” to the company installing the cladding on Grenfell Tower.
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Grenfell Tower FireANDY RAIN/PAP/EPA
Grenfell Tower Fire
A partial report published in 2019, which focused on the events of the night of the fire, found it was caused by an electrical fault in a refrigerator in a fourth-floor apartment.
The flames then spread uncontrollably, largely because the skyscraper had been covered during a 2016 renovation with cladding – exterior panels designed to improve appearance and add insulation – made of a flammable aluminium composite material.
The harrowing accounts, including video footage of people who died waiting for rescuers while following official guidelines to stay put, have sparked outrage and a nationwide reflection on building standards and the treatment of low-income communities.
Dangerous cladding on thousands of buildings
Prime Minister Keir Starmer apologised on behalf of the British state to relatives of victims and survivors on Wednesday, saying the country had failed for years. “This should never have happened. This country failed in its most basic duty to protect you and your loved ones. Today is a long-awaited day of truth, but it must now lead to a day of justice,” he told parliament, before a group of relatives of victims.
It will still take some time for justice to be served, as police and prosecutors have said investigators will need until the end of 2025 to complete their investigation, meaning final decisions on potential criminal charges will not be made until the end of 2026.
Government figures from July showed that 3,280 buildings in the UK measuring 11 metres or more still had unsafe cladding, with repair work yet to start on more than two-thirds of them.
Main image source: ANDY RAIN/PAP/EPA