Tragedy that demands answers – and quickly

TWO days after flames engulfed Grenfell Tower, and as the grim task of picking through the rubble to identify bodies begins, the list of questions for council bureaucrats, contractors and ministers grows ever longer.

Hour after hour yesterday, more disturbing evidence emerged of catastrophic failures which cost the lives of up to 100 people.

Yes, it is too soon for firm conclusions about the cause of the blaze – something Jeremy Corbyn should have considered when he cynically blamed spending cuts before it was even extinguished.

But the more we learn of this tragedy, the more it appears that the blame lies not with money but staggering incompetence and misguided climate change targets.

Clearly, the public inquiry – rightly ordered yesterday by Theresa May – must examine why an £8.6million refit used flammable plastic cladding which turned a safe building into a tinder box overnight.

Was it, as official documents suggest, an attempt to slash greenhouse gas emissions? Even then, why wasn’t a fireproof alternative used – or one which didn’t pump out clouds of cyanide when set ablaze?

Why didn’t anyone fit life-saving sprinkler systems costing as little as £200,000? And why on Earth were residents told to stay inside, condemning many to death?

Urgent answers are needed, not least to ensure the safety of other tower blocks, but also for families who have lost loved ones. For their sake, the inquiry must not – as have so many others – drag on for years.

Meanwhile, as politicians posture, the Mail pays tribute to the public’s extraordinary generosity in donating vast sums of money, clothes and possessions to those who have lost everything.