All 72 deaths in London's Grenfell Tower inferno 'avoidable': Final report
A horrific fire in Grenfell Tower claimed the lives of 72 people in London in 2017; seven years on, a final report into the inferno says all deaths were avoidable.
The long-running investigation into the fire said Wednesday that the disaster “was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry.”
“All contributed to it in one way or another, in most cases through incompetence, but in some cases, through dishonesty and greed,” said Martin Moore-Bick, a retired judge who chaired the inquiry.
“The simple truth is the deaths were all avoidable and those who lived in the tower were badly failed.”
The retired judge said residents were "badly failed" by those who should have ensured the building was safe for them to live in.
The fire broke out in the early hours of June 14, 2017 and spread rapidly through the 24-storey block in west London due to highly combustible cladding fixed to the exterior. It started in a faulty freezer on the fourth floor and took barely half an hour to climb to the building's top floor.
The 1,700-page report also blamed the companies involved in supplying the cladding panels. It said they were “engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the testing processes, misrepresent test data and mislead the market.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer offered an apology on behalf of the British state on Wednesday, saying the fire "should never have happened.”
"The country failed to discharge its most fundamental duty: to protect you and your loved ones... And I am deeply sorry," Starmer said in a statement to parliament.
The inferno in Grenfell Tower was the deadliest fire on British soil since World War II.
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