By Rob Harris
London: A culture of dishonesty among several construction firms and a failure of politicians to act on serious warnings led to the deadly fire at a west London housing block which killed 72 people, the head of the public inquiry into the disaster said.
The nearly 1700 -page report said the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy was “avoidable”, a culmination of “decades of failure” and a result of “in most cases incompetence but in some cases … dishonesty and greed”.
Combustible cladding on London's Grenfell Tower exacerbated a fire that claimed 72 lives in 2017.Credit: AP
The inferno, which killed 54 adults and 18 children, was the worst fire disaster in the UK since the Second World War. It started in a fridge in a fourth-floor kitchen, before spreading through the external cladding up the building and causing flames to tear up the external walls of the recently refurbished high-rise apartment block.
Residents, who were initially told to stay behind fire doors in their rooms, became trapped on higher floors, and many were unconscious or dead because of inhaling poisonous fumes even before the flames reached them. Two Australian citizens – Victoria King, 71, and her daughter, Alexandra Atala, 40 – who perished inside their 20th-floor flat, were among the victims.
Inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick accused the “unscrupulous” building companies that made the combustible cladding and foam insulation of engaging in deliberate manipulation and dishonesty to push their products onto the tower. He said they were aided by a government well aware of cladding risks, but which “failed to act on what it knew”.
Messages of condolence on a board, close to Grenfell Tower in 2019 after the first phase of an inquiry into the fire condemned the London Fire Brigade for “serious shortcomings”. Credit: Getty
The Grenfell United group of survivors and bereaved families said on Wednesday that “every single loss of life was avoidable” and victims were failed by unscrupulous companies and a government that placed corporate interest above public safety.
“Human life was never a priority, and we lost friends, neighbours and loved ones in the most horrific way – from greed, corruption,” group spokesperson Natasha Elcock said.
The report said “systematic dishonesty” of the companies behind the tower’s cladding and insulation was a significant reason why Grenfell came to be covered in combustible materials.
Moore-Bick singled out the US company Arconic, which supplied the main cladding, as well as UK-based Celotex and Ireland-based Kingspan, which provided insulation for the building. The companies have defended much of their conduct, issuing statements that they had co-operated fully with all investigations.
His report also said the department responsible for building regulations, which it called complacent, poorly run and defensive, had presided over a woefully deficient and fragmented regulatory regime and under the former UK government of David Cameron had prioritised deregulation over safety.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer apologised to the relatives of victims and survivors on behalf of the country, saying they had been failed for years.
“It should never have happened. The country failed to discharge its most fundamental duty, to protect you and your loved ones,” he said in parliament as some bereaved relatives watched on.
“Today is a long-awaited day of truth, but it must now lead to a day of justice.”
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