How the hell could it happen?
Scores of residents are feared to have been killed in the terrifying blaze that engulfed 24-storey Grenfell Tower in West London early yesterday morning. Furious survivors say they’d warned the refurbished council block was a disaster waiting to happen
DAMNING safety failures were last night blamed for the worst British disaster in at least 30 years.
Housing chiefs, council bosses and even government ministers were accused of having ‘blood on their hands’ over failings that saw a tower block become an inferno in minutes, leaving scores feared dead.
In scenes reminiscent of 9/11, trapped residents leapt to their deaths from the 1970s high-rise. Families were burnt alive as neighbours watched in horror.
The blaze swept through Grenfell Tower in west London with lightning speed while most of its 600 residents slept. Barely anyone above the 14th floor is thought to have survived. Identification of the victims is likely to take weeks and it is thought the death toll could rise to more than 100.
Yesterday furious residents pointed to design and building flaws that apparently allowed a minor fridge fire to spiral out of control.
Blame focused on polystyrene cladding panels that council contractors had plastered over the building in a £8.6million refurb designed to make it look nicer and save energy. The panels made the tower ‘light up like a match’ while raining down toxic debris on rescuers.
Residents said they had been warning for years that the 24-storey block was a disaster waiting to happen and only a catastrophe would expose the ineptitude and incompetence of housing chiefs.
The Mail can reveal that Kensington and Chelsea borough council tried to hush up the group with legal action.
Last night ministers ordered urgent checks on tower blocks elsewhere.
As a major political row broke out over the reasons for the disaster – feared to be the worst since the Zeebrugge ferry disaster killed 193 in 1987:
Survivors said fire alarms did not work, there were no sprinklers and they were saved only by phone calls from neighbours;
Victims were given fatal advice by 999 operators to stay in their flats;
Former chief fire officer Jon Hall branded it ‘a Third-World type accident that represents a failure of every component of fire safety and building management’;
London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said: ‘In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale’;
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn suggested austerity was a factor;
Theresa May’s chief of staff Gavin Barwell was in the dock over claims he ‘sat on’ warnings about high-rise fires as a minister;
Successive ministers were blamed for ignoring the lessons of a fatal 2009 tower block blaze;
A former Kensington housing boss admitted Grenfell had been a ‘scandal waiting to happen’;
Contractors Rydon insisted they had complied with building regulations – but later changed their statement to remove mention of fire regulations.
About 250 firefighters tackled the blaze and rescued 65 people.
Police and the London Fire Brigade used a drone yesterday to peer into the upper floors of the blackened building.
Scotland Yard said 12 were dead – with the figure likely to rise – but would not say how many were unaccounted for as families searched for loved ones. A community leader said: ‘We have a list of missing people – there are so many. It’s possible there are more than 50, possibly hundreds.’
Grenfell Tower had suffered repeated power surges amid claims poor wiring could have been a factor. It is one of an estimated 4,000 tower blocks around the country not to have a sprinkler system.
During the recent building works fire safeguards were allegedly removed. Contractors insisted yesterday they had worked within the regulations.
Ministers were accused of repeatedly rejecting chances to change the regulations. MPs had warned after a 1999 Ayrshire fire that cladding should be non-combustible.
Kensington and Chelsea council’s leader Nick Paget-Brown said there were ‘difficulties, problems, complaints, logistics to resolve’ in relation to the renovations, but issued no apology.
Fay Edwards, chairman of the council’s tenant management organisation which ran the block, was lambasted for ‘casually’ walking her dog while families were still searching for loved ones.
Andrew Goldman, the director of construction firm Rydon, admitted he did not know ‘the exact
‘Fatal design and building flaws’ ‘Long and complex operation’
specifications’ of the cladding used. His firm last night revised its earlier statement about the project meeting all ‘fire regulation and health and safety standards’ to remove the mention of fire.
Emergency checks will now be carried out on tower blocks going through the same process of refurbishment as Grenfell Tower, said policing and fire minister Nick Hurd. Last night, investigators said they were moving to a ‘recovery stage’ after losing all hope of finding any more survivors.
Some bodies have already been recovered from the smouldering building, which contains 120 flats.s.
Scotland Yard has established a disaster victim identificationon bureau, modelled on the operationon which followed the 2004 Boxing ng Day tsunami.
Officers are braced to identifyfy the dead from DNA and dentalal records, often gathering forensicic evidence from relatives.
It is understood that the process ss of identifying the dead could take ke weeks because of the difficulty of accessing the tower and the feroccity of the blaze.
Eighteen people are fighting for or their lives in six hospitals across ss the capital, where a total of 74 patients received treatment.
Medical staff said they treated a range of injuries including smoke ke inhalation, severe burns and injuuries from falls. Almost 50 families, es, mostly those with very young or very old members, were givenen emergency accommodation.
Others were offered space at a sports centre as donations of food, drinks, bedding and clothing piled up at a social club and garage.
Jamie Oliver offered those affected by the fire free food, drink and shelter at his restaurant in the nearby Westfield London shopping centre. Hundreds of online charity fundraising pages, including those set up by teachers, mosques and community volunteers, had raised more than £550,000.
Commissioner Cotton described the scale of the fire as unprece- dented, adding: ‘In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale.’
Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy said investigators were braced for the death toll to soar. ‘This is going to be a long and complex recovery operation and I do anticipate that the number of fatalities will sadly increase beyond those 12,’ he said. Mrs May said she was ‘deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life’ and promised a full investigation.
‘If there are any lessons to be learned they will be, and action will be taken,’ the Prime Minister added. Facebook was criticised last night after ghoulish photos apparently showing a victim unwrapped from his body bag went up on its site.
IN tower blocks all over the country tonight, few will sleep easily in their beds. After the horrific fire in West London, our first thoughts are with the victims, the bereaved and the families of the missing.
We think, too, of the heroism of the emergency services and the efforts by neighbours and others to relieve the suffering of the terrified and distraught.
But though recriminations must wait until the full facts emerge, it is clear that contractors, councillors and ministers face profoundly disturbing questions.
After the blaze that killed six in a South London block in 2009, it should have been unthinkable that this could happen again.
But eight years on, the similarities are frightening. Like Lakanal house in Camberwell, Grenfell Tower had recently been refurbished, raising suspicions that corners had been cut.
Indeed, the fire seems to have been intensified by polystyrene-like external cladding, a cheap cosmetic alternative to full refurbishment or rebuilding.
As in 2009, questions are being asked about non-existent sprinklers, inadequate alarms and lethal advice to residents to stay in their flats. And as then, the early signs are that the fire may have been started by a faulty electrical appliance – one of millions still awaiting recall.
Why were lessons not learned? Why were residents’ warnings repeatedly ignored? Why were MPs’ and safety officers’ urgent recommendations allowed to gather dust?
Whatever the truth, the priority now must be to make every neglected tower block safe – so everyone can sleep without fear.