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UK’s deadliest residential fire since WWII caused by ‘decades of failure’

Updated Sep 4, 2024, 7:36am EDT
UK
Toby Melville/Reuters
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The Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people in 2017 was the “culmination of decades of failure” by successive governments, companies, and fire services, a six-year-long public inquiry into the disaster concluded on Wednesday.

The deaths caused by Britain’s deadliest residential blaze since World War II were “all avoidable,” inquiry chair Martin Moore-Bick said following the release of the damning report.

Manufacturers responsible for the installation of highly combustible cladding and insulation during the West London tower block’s refurbishment a year before the fire engaged in “deliberate and sustained attempts to manipulate the testing processes, misrepresent data, and mislead the market,” the report said.

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Safety warnings were dismissed by successive coalition and Conservative governments as the pressure to slash red tape “dominated” decision-making, it added.

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Grenfell United, which represents survivors and bereaved families of the fire, said that justice had “still not been delivered” years after the disaster.

“To prevent a future Grenfell, the government needs to create something that doesn’t exist: a government with the power and ability to separate itself from the construction industry and corporate lobbying, putting people before profit,” the organization wrote.

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Around 2,300 residential buildings 11 meters in height and over in England are yet to begin remediation work to remove dangerous cladding, according to recent government data.

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