Grenfell fire death toll could have been lower, claims leaked report

FEWER people might have died in the Grenfell Tower fire had residents been evacuated while it was still possible, an official report into the tragedy said.

The public inquiry’s first report into the blaze, due to be published today but seen by the PA news agency, identified “systemic” failures by the London Fire Brigade (LFB).

It also accused the brigade’s commissioner Dany Cotton of “remarkable insensitivity” after shesaidshewouldnothavedone anything differently on the night.

Inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said fewer people are likely to have died if key decisions had been made earlier and made a number of recommendations following the two-year investigation into how the disaster at the west London tower block unfolded.

But Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack told the BBC the ordering of the inquiry was “completely back-tofront” — a concern previously voiced by the local community.

He said: “Firefighters’ actions on the night, which were remarkable in the circumstances, are now being scrutinised.

“Nobody is trying to avoid scrutiny, but we think that the ordering of the inquiry is completely back-to-front.”

The report was leaked on Monday ahead of publication and campaigners said it was “unacceptable” the bereaved and survivors who had not yet read the report were being “drip fed” the findings by the media.

In his report, Sir Martin said the “principal reason” the flames shot up the building at such speed was the combustible aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding with polyethylene cores which acted as a “source of fuel”.

The panels were added in the refurbishment of the tower before the June 2017 fire.

The report also concluded the fire, in which 72 people died, started as the result of an “electrical fault in a large fridge-freezer” in a fourth floor flat. Sir Martin said Behailu Kebede, who had lived in the flat, bore no blame for the fire.

Ms Cotton announced her retirement in June. A London Fire Brigade spokeswoman said that it would be “ina ppropriate” for it to comment until the report’s publication today.

The Grenfell Tower blaze led to the deaths of 72 people in 2017