Anger erupts over London blaze
Experts say cheap material may have helped fire spread
LONDON — Grief turned to outrage Friday over a high-rise tower fire in London amid reports that materials used in the building’s renovation could have fueled the inferno that left dozens dead and missing.
Engineering experts say outside insulation panels installed on the 24-story Grenfell Tower may have helped the fire spread rapidly. The Guardian newspaper reported Friday that contractors installed a cheaper, less flame-resistant type of paneling in the renovation that ended in May 2016.
Tensions were high two days after the overnight fire gutted the huge housing block, killing at least 30 people and leaving dozens missing and hundreds homeless.
Scuffles broke out near the Kensington and Chelsea town hall offices as demonstrators chanting
“We want justice!” surged toward the doors.
The Grenfell Tower housed about 600 people. Britain’s Press Association reported that some 70 people are still missing.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said people were frustrated by the lack of information about the missing and the dead as well as a lack of coordination between support services.
“The scale of this tragedy is clearly proving too much for the local authority to cope with on their own,” Khan said in an open letter to Prime Minister Theresa May.
After meeting with Grenfell survivors on Friday, May announced a $6.4 million fund to help them and expressed sorrow for their plight.
But the Conservative leader still struggled to overcome accusations that she lacked compassion because she had failed to meet with victims on her first visit to the devastated site.
London Police have launched an investigation. May on Thursday announced a public inquiry while
Khan called for an interim report to be published this summer.
Grenfell Tower is owned by the local government council and managed by a nonprofit known as the Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organization. The group last year completed a $12.8 million renovation that included new outside insulation panels and a communal heating system.
The Guardian newspaper reported Friday that Omnis Exteriors supplied the aluminum composite material used in the cladding. The newspaper quoted company director John Cowley as saying the building used Reynobond PE cladding, which is $2.56 cheaper per square meter than Reynobond FR, which stands for “fire resistant.”