By Michael Holden and Catarina Demony
LONDON (Reuters) – A public inquiry into a fire at the Grenfell Tower apartments in London that killed 72 people seven years ago will issue a report on Wednesday with survivors and families hoping it spells out who was to blame.
The fire that ripped through the 23-storey social housing block in one of the wealthiest areas of west London during the early hours of June 14, 2017, was Britain’s deadliest in a residential building since World War Two.
A combustible cladding system retrofitted to the tower’s exterior helped the flames to spread uncontrollably, while many died in their apartments because they followed official guidance to stay where they were and await rescue.
Harrowing accounts of those who perished in the densely populated social housing block prompted national soul-searching over building standards and the treatment of low-income communities.
“We will never forget the 72 lives lost at Grenfell, and we share the families’ and community’s determination to get to the truth of what happened, and for all those responsible to be held to account,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson told reporters.
On Wednesday, the inquiry into the disaster, headed by retired judge Martin Moore-Bick, will deliver its final conclusions, having examined the building’s design and maintenance, whether safety regulations were adhered to and if they were adequate.
LITANY OF CHARGES?
British police have said 58 people and 19 firms and organisations are under investigation over possible criminal offences.
Any charges remain years away because of the complexity and the need to consider the inquiry’s report. They could include corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, fraud, health and safety offences and misconduct in a public office.
Relatives of victims said they were unhappy possible prosecutions had been delayed.
“That is because of the inquiry, which we did not ask for and we were not asked about. Our voices were robbed. We were not given the choice, and we did not know the consequences and the impact on our right to justice,” said Hisam Choucair who lost six family members.
“The only thing that matters to those of us who lost our kin is justice,” said Choucair, from the Grenfell Next of Kin group that represents families of 34 victims.
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 flat started the fire.
Flames then rapidly spread, mainly because the tower had been covered during a 2016 refurbishment with cladding made of flammable aluminum composite material that acted as a source of fuel.
The issue of exterior cladding has raised concerns across Europe where there have been similar blazes in apartment blocks such as in the Spanish city of Valencia in February, and in Italy in 2021.
In Britain, 4,630 buildings standing at 11 metres or higher still had unsafe cladding, with remediation work yet to start on half of them, according to government data up to July.
(Reporting by Michael Holden and Catarina Demony; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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