Category Archives: Grenfell Tower fire

‘Really upsetting’: Grenfell Tower edited out of TV advert

Posted on by

Exclusive: Man whose uncle died in 2017 disaster describes ad for pain relief gel Voltarol as ‘insulting’

Grenfell Tower has been edited out of a TV advert in a move described as “insulting” by a family bereaved by the June 2017 disaster.

Karim Mussilhy, whose uncle Hesham Rahman was among 72 people who died as a result of the fire, noticed the edit while watching the Channel 4 streaming service on Monday when an advert for the pain relief gel Voltarol showed people playing football on the Westway football pitches close to the council block.

Continue reading...

Final death toll from Spanish tower block blaze is nine, say police

Posted on by

Authorities lower count of victims in Valencia fire, with one more person considered missing

Spanish police have said the final death toll from a devastating fire that tore through a 14-storey block of flats in the eastern city of Valencia is nine, with one person thought to have died now considered missing and all others accounted for.

El País cited national police as saying that after forensic analysis of the bodies found in the charred building, they had lowered the number of victims from the 10 previously reported by the Spanish government’s representative in the region.

Continue reading...

Grenfell survivor in whose flat fire started describes anguish to victims’ event

Posted on by

Behailu Kebede remains ‘broken inside’ despite bearing no responsibility, as company executives listen at testimony week

The minicab driver in whose flat the Grenfell Tower fire started has said his heart is “full of pain, grief and desolation” and he can “never forget that it was in my flat, in my kitchen that the fire started … and all those lives were lost”.

Behailu Kebede, who lived in Grenfell Tower for 25 years, told a highly charged hearing in central London – attended by 24 executives from companies accused of responsibility for the fire – that he remains “broken inside”.

Continue reading...

Writer of Grenfell play says people must be jailed for what happened

Posted on by

Gillian Slovo’s play at National Theatre uses words of survivors of 2017 fire at west London tower block

People must be jailed for what happened at Grenfell Tower, the award-winning author Gillian Slovo has said, as her play about the disaster prepares to open at the National Theatre in London.

Slovo, who gained international recognition with her novel Red Dust, set in South Africa’s post-apartheid truth and reconciliation commission, has used dialogue gleaned verbatim from interviews with 10 of the survivors for the play, which has left actors in tears after preview performances. In an interview with the Guardian she said: “Without jail time, how’s it going to stop anybody else doing this in the future?”

Continue reading...

Use of Kingspan insulation on towers near Grenfell angers residents

Posted on by

Council orders contractor to immediately remove material made by firm implicated in 2017 disaster

Materials made by a company implicated in the Grenfell Tower disaster have been installed on a pair of nearby council tower blocks during fire safety works, in a move met with outrage in the west London community.

Insulation made by Kingspan, the firm that provided some of the combustible foam on the tower, which went up in flames on 14 June 2017 killing 72 people, was discovered last week on the Adair and Hazelwood towers, a few hundred metres from Grenfell.

Continue reading...

Grenfell fire: National Theatre play to tell survivors’ stories

Posted on by

Production is at centre of collaboration with west London community affected by 2017 disaster

The National Theatre is to stage a verbatim play based on accounts by survivors and those bereaved by the Grenfell Tower fire almost six years ago as the centrepiece of a long-term collaborative project with the west London community.

The play, Grenfell: in the words of survivors, is the work of the novelist and playwright Gillian Slovo, who spent five years gaining the confidence of community members and recording their accounts of the disaster in north Kensington which killed 72 people.

Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors will be at the National Theatre from 13 July until 26 August.

Continue reading...

Gove admits ‘faulty’ guidance partly to blame for Grenfell fire

Posted on by

Minister says he wants to abolish ‘outdated, feudal’ system of home ownership by end of this parliament

Michael Gove has admitted that “faulty and ambiguous” government guidance was partly responsible for the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The UK housing secretary said lax regulation allowed cladding firms to “put people in danger in order to make a profit”.

Gove’s remarks come more than five years after the tower block fire that killed 72 people.

Continue reading...

‘Mental torture’: six years after Grenfell, UK residents still live in fear as cladding deal falters

Posted on by

A government agreement with developers was meant to solve the fire safety crisis in affected buildings – but the wrangling goes on

In June 2021, Charlotte Meehan received a safety inspection report for her block of flats as part of the nationwide checks after the Grenfell Tower fire. It made for grim reading, warning that the block had been built with combustible cladding and insulation.

Last April, the government announced a “wide-ranging” agreement with developers to fix the crisis of unsafe tall buildings, but Meehan, 34, and her fellow residents in the four-storey block in east London, are among tens of thousands still waiting for their homes to be made safe.

Continue reading...

Grenfell fire inquiry ends with shocking reminder of the human cost

Posted on by

The final evidence sessions have heard unflinching accounts of how victims died, panicking and desperate in horrific conditions

The public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster is ending as it began: with a shocking reminder of the human cost. It opened in May 2018 with elegies to the 72 victims. Its final evidence sessions have been unflinching accounts of the violence of their final moments.

The hearings sought to satisfy the fact-finding requirements of the coroner but swung the spotlight of an often highly technical inquiry back to the sheer barbarity wrought upon a community that still awaits justice.

Continue reading...

Grenfell Tower legal costs on course to top £250m

Posted on by

As five-year anniversary approaches, figures reveal public inquiry into the fire has spent £149m so far

Legal bills relating to the Grenfell Tower fire are on course to top a quarter of a billion pounds, according to figures obtained by the Guardian on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the disaster.

The public inquiry into the causes of the fire that killed 72 people in the west London tower block has spent £149m so far with more than £60m going to lawyers working for the core participants, the inquiry revealed on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Grenfell families ‘enraged’ by plan to keep ‘stay put’ policy

Posted on by

Grenfell United criticises Home Office papers outlining reason for retaining policy against inquiry recommendations

Bereaved relatives of the Grenfell Tower blaze have said they are “enraged” by government plans to keep the controversial “stay put” policy instead of adopting an inquiry recommendation.

Grenfell United has criticised new Home Office papers which outline its reasons for retaining the policy – meaning that residents of most buildings should wait for rescue services rather than leaving in the event of a fire.

Continue reading...

‘Painful choices’ remain over tribute to Grenfell Tower victims

Posted on by

A memorial garden is the most popular option but families and the community have different views on the future of the tower

Bereaved relatives of those killed in the Grenfell Tower fire and the community living in its shadow are struggling to agree on the best way to commemorate the disaster.

Next month marks five years since a fire engulfed the tower block in North Kensington, west London, killing 72 people.

Continue reading...

Firms that refuse to fund cladding repairs could face trading ban

Posted on by

Uncooperative developers to be threatened with loss of planning permission by Michael Gove

Developers that are refusing to contribute to the fund set up to fix dangerous cladding will be warned this week they could be blocked from selling new homes.

The levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, will explicitly threaten retaliation, citing powers in the building safety bill that would stop uncooperative developers getting planning permission.

Continue reading...

Eric Pickles asks Grenfell inquiry not to waste his time but gets death toll wrong

Posted on by

72 people were killed in the fire but Pickles said 96, the number who died in the Hillsborough disaster

A former cabinet minister has challenged the Grenfell inquiry not to waste his time while giving evidence, before getting the death toll from the disaster wrong.

Lord Pickles, who served as secretary of state at the then Department for Communities and Local Government between 2010 and 2015, sparked anger after he advised the inquiry’s senior counsel to “use your time wisely” as he had an extremely busy day.

Continue reading...

Housebuilders pledge £1.3bn for fire safety work on mid-rise blocks

Posted on by

Funds for remediation including removal of flammable cladding still short of £4bn government estimate

Major UK housebuilders have so far promised to spend about £1.3bn to remove cladding and other fire hazards from mid-rise housing blocks, but are still short of the estimated £4bn needed to avoid another Grenfell Tower-style disaster.

On Wednesday Barratt Developments and Redrow were the latest to reveal how much they would put aside to address life-threatening fire safety issues in the housing developments constructed by the firms over the past 30 years. Barratt said the decision would cost it up to £400m, while the figure for Redrow is £200m.

Continue reading...

Grenfell inquiry told government had ideological aversion to red tape

Posted on by

Brandon Lewis is first government minister to give evidence at inquiry in London

Calls to regulate against the potential incompetence of people who check fire risks in buildings before the Grenfell Tower disaster were dismissed by government ministers because of an “ideological” aversion to increasing red tape, the public inquiry has heard.

Two coroners investigating earlier fire fatalities, the London fire brigade commissioner and the government’s own chief fire adviser were among experts who asked ministers to toughen scrutiny of fire risk assessors, according to testimony heard during cross-examination of Brandon Lewis, the first government minister to give evidence.

Continue reading...

Fire safety official admits tests showed cladding danger 15 years before Grenfell

Posted on by

In evidence to inquiry, Anthony Burd denies there was a cover-up of the results of taxpayer-funded tests

A senior official has admitted the government knew 15 years before the Grenfell Tower disaster that plastic-filled cladding panels – which fuelled the fatal fire – burned “fast and fierce” and he believed they should not be used on tall buildings.

But the results of tests were not published, and on Monday Anthony Burd, the principal fire safety professional and later head of technical policy in the government’s building regulations division from 2000 to 2013, denied there was a cover-up.

Continue reading...

Lewis Hamilton distances himself from F1 team Kingspan deal

Posted on by

British driver says he had ‘nothing’ to do with sponsorship deal with company linked to Grenfell fire

Lewis Hamilton has distanced himself from his Formula One team’s partnership deal with Kingspan, an insulation company linked to the Grenfell Tower fire, saying he had nothing to do with the decision.

He also cast doubt on Kingspan branding remaining on his Mercedes car.

Continue reading...

Lewis Hamilton’s F1 team under pressure to scrap Grenfell cladding firm deal

Posted on by

Sponsorship deal with Kingspan sparked furious backlash from the Grenfell community

Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes Formula One team is facing growing pressure to scrap a sponsorship deal with a firm that made combustible insulation on Grenfell Tower, after the government threatened to change advertising rules.

The racing team’s deal with Kingspan will mean the logo of the firm that made some of the foam boards used on the tower will be emblazoned on the nose cone of cars driven by Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas starting at this weekend’s Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.

Continue reading...

Grenfell survivors outraged by Lewis Hamilton car sponsorship deal

Posted on by

F1 champion will race carrying branding of company that made combustible boards used on tower

The seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton is facing protests from Grenfell survivors over a “truly shocking” sponsorship deal that will see his racing car emblazoned with the logo of a firm that made combustible insulation used on the tower.

Kingspan has been named as an official partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team, for which Hamilton is the star driver, and its branding is set to feature on Hamilton’s car starting at this weekend’s Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.

Continue reading...