Seventy-two people died when the fire ripped through the 23-storey social housing block in one of the richest areas of west London during the early hours of June 14, 2017. It was Britain’s deadliest blaze in a residential building since World War II, Reuters reported.
In its long-awaited final report, the inquiry laid most responsibility for the disaster on the companies involved in the maintenance and refit of the apartment tower, failings by local and national authorities as well as companies which had dishonestly marketed combustible cladding materials as safe.
There was also widespread criticism and blame levelled at the government, local authority of Kensington and Chelsea, the industry, regulatory groups, specific individuals and an ill-prepared fire brigade for years of inaction over fire safety in high-rise blocks.
“The fire at Grenfell Tower was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry,” said the inquiry report, which ran to almost 1,700 pages.
In the years since the inferno, survivors and relatives of those who perished have demanded those responsible should face justice and criminal charges. But while British police have said 58 people and 19 firms and organizations are under investigation, prosecutions -including for corporate manslaughter and fraud- remain years away because of the complexity and the need to consider the inquiry’s report.
An earlier report by the inquiry team in 2019, which focused on the events of the night, found an electrical fault in a refrigerator in a fourth floor apartment started the fire.
Flames then spread uncontrollably, mainly because the tower had been covered during a 2016 refurbishment with cladding -exterior panels designed to improve appearance and add insulation- made of flammable aluminum composite material that acted as a source of fuel.
In Britain, government figures from July showed 3,280 buildings standing at 36 feet or higher still had unsafe cladding, with remediation work yet to start on more than two-thirds of them.
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