Material #36: "The deaths were all avoidable"
Grenfell Fire Inquiry's final report finds industry and government at fault
“The simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable”.
This is what the chairman of the Grenfell Fire Inquiry said in delivering the Inquiry’s final report. Seventy-two people died in the Grenfell Tower fire on June 14, 2017. That’s the immediate deaths, not counting the toll the tragedy took on those who survived that day, and the families of the deceased.
The report concludes that industry and government are directly to blame for the fire, through cost-cutting, dishonest sales, incompetence, and deregulation which meant that a 2015 refurbishment project clad the whole building in highly flammable materials. A “reinforced concrete building, itself structurally impervious to fire [was] turned into a death trap that would enable fire to sweep through it in an uncontrolled way in a matter of hours.”
Suppliers of the cladding products, the report says, “engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the testing processes, misrepresent test data, and mislead the market.”
And it says that “the government’s deregulatory agenda…dominated the department’s thinking to such an extent that even matters affecting the safety of life were ignored, delayed or disregarded.” (The department referred to here is the now reconfigured “Department for Communities and Local Government”).
Families of survivors are calling for justice and accountability, but the timeline for potential criminal charges means it’s likely none will be made before late 2026.
In his statement about the Inquiry to Parliament, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer apologized on behalf of the British state to the affected families. He also said that “a safe and decent home is a human right and a basic expectation. And the provision of that right should never be undermined by the reckless pursuit of greed.”
The circumstances of the Grenfell fire are a stark example of two pervasive patterns: of corporate capture of government leading to a combination of lax and ignored regulations; and of lives being put at risk - seen as expendable - through the pursuit of profit.
Read perspectives from three Grenfell survivors - Ed Daffarn and Tiago Alves who lived in the building, and Shah Aghlani who was on the phone with his mother as she died in the fire
Visit the webpage of Grenfell United - a group of survivors and families
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Through 2024, It’s Material is sharing one use of the word “material” each week, on Tuesdays.