After six long years of inquiry, it was found that all the deaths in the Grenfell Tower fire were ‘avoidable.’
What Happened?
Fire broke out in the 24-storey residential building Grenfell Tower in London, England, at around 12 a.m. on June 14, 2017.
According to Al Jazeera, an Uber driver named Behailu Kebede first reported the fire at 999 and told the London Fire Brigade, “Flat 16, Grenfell Tower. In the fridge. It’s on the fourth floor. Quick, quick, quick. It’s burning.”
All the residents were sleeping when the first four fire engines arrived at the scene. By 03:30 am, the entire building was ablaze.
The fire continued to burn for around 24 hours, and the fire was finally extinguished on June 15, leaving 72 dead and more than 70 people injured.
It was the worst residential fire in the history of Britain since the end of the Second World War.
Shocking Revelations of the Inquiry Report
The 1,700-page final report Grenfell Tower tragedy public inquiry revealed that dishonesty, greed, and incompetence were the reasons behind the tragedy, The Guardian reported.
The published report also stated that all 72 deaths that occurred were ‘avoidable’ but the failure of the government, tenant management organisations, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, manufacturers, and suppliers of the materials caused the tragedy.
“(The fire) was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry to look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them,” says the report.
