By Daniel Hordon and Ben Mills
On the one year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the CLV Phoenix remembers the victims and the outcomes of the disaster.
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On Wednesday 14th June 2017, a quickly spreading fire at Grenfell Tower in Kensington, West London, claimed the lives of 72 residents of the tower block and left over a hundred survivors homeless. On the one year anniversary of the tragedy, the CLV Phoenix remembers the victims and the outcomes of the disaster.
Last night 12 tower blocks around London were illuminated in green light - a colour which has become symbolic with response to the tower fire - to remember the 72 people who lost their lives the year previous. The move came as an act of solidarity with the victims of the tower fire and those who have lost their lives.
Throughout the day on Thursday, commemoration events took place to allow the nation to mourn the deaths of the 72 people who lost their lives, including a stillborn baby. The names of the victims were read out in the event which saw family members, survivors, victims, politicians and Justice for Grenfell campaigners join hands.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn joined a silent march on Thursday evening to “stand in solidarity with the community and renew [his] commitment to fight for justice”. London Mayor Sadiq Kahn was also present at the silent march while the Queen and newly-married Duchess of Sussex joined mourners to pay tribute with a 72 second silence while on a royal engagement in Chester. The silence was respected across the country with MPs in the House of Commons also suspending debate to remember those who lost their lives.
The Prime Minister Theresa May, who came under fire for her response to the fire just 1 week after her re-election into a minority government, today apologised for her response. Speaking to Grenfell Speaks, the PM have a stark apology, saying “I am sorry for not having met [the survivors]”. She also went on to say: “The response wasn’t good enough, that’s absolutely clear […] I don’t know why it took so long”. The apology from the PM comes just days after a poll found that over 80% of Grenfell victims and survivors lacked trust in the government.
A full public inquiry has now opened into the disaster, with former residents of Grenfell Tower being given the opportunity to share their personal stories in the first harrowing days. Reportedly, up to 330 organisations also face criminal charges over the incident, according to the Evening Standard.
One year on from the tragedy at Grenfell, 153 former residents of the tower block are still living in hotels or temporary accommodation. The local Kensington & Chelsea council has faced widespread criticism for the lack of suitable permanent housing offered to the survivors of the fire. Whilst a target of 3 weeks for offering suitable housing and a target of the first anniversary was set for rehousing all of the survivors, this deadline has still not been met. 198 of the 203 households requiring rehoming have accepted offers for accommodation despite only 82 of these properties being ready for habitation.
Widely considered one of the biggest tragedies in recent British history, the commemorations mark the one year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire. According to forensic examinations, it is believed fire first broke out on the fourth floor of the 1974 residential block at around 00:50 on Wednesday morning due to a malfunctioning Hotpoint fridge - freezer. Emergency services first arrived on the scene around 10 minutes later and managed to quickly extinguish the original blaze - by this time, however, the fire had already began to rise up the exterior of the tower.
Residents began to evacuate the building en-masse over the next hour, however many on the higher floors of the tower were informed to remain in their flats by the fire brigade. This policy was widely criticised in the days following the disaster; even after it was clear the fire was not contained in one apartment as the criteria for giving this advice is, emergency services failed to abandon the policy.
As the smoke began to fill stairwells, making evacuation impossible, witnesses described seeing residents jumping from windows in attempts to escape the fire. By 16th June, the Met Police had issued a statement saying they did not believe they would find any more survivors, and that there were fears the death toll could exceed 100, with 24 people still being treated in 5 hospitals across London from smoke inhalation and other injuries.
In the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell fire, the government announced a public inquiry into the disaster, and a £5 million fund to assist the hundreds of survivors who had been left homeless by the blaze. Prime Minister Theresa May also said in the Commons, “as Prime Minister, I have taken responsibility for doing what we can to put things right,” acknowledging that there had been a “failure of the state – local and national – to help people when they needed it most”.
The Queen, who visited the community relief centre in the days following the fire alongside Prince William, also released a statement on her birthday on 17th of June. Referring to Grenfell and also the terror attacks which had taken place in London and Manchester in the months before the fire, she said that it was “difficult to escape a very sombre national mood”.
Other responses to the fire included the release of a charity single to raise money for the survivors and the families of the victims of the tower block fire. Organised by Simon Cowell, the cover of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” featured 50 “Artists for Grenfell”, including Robbie Williams, Emeli Sandé, Anne-Marie and Paloma Faith. South London rapper Stormzy, who also featured in the charity single, is one of the many celebrities who have been critical of the response to Grenfell from the government and the council. In his performance at the 2018 Brit Awards in February, he modified his lyrics to ask “Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell?”.
Many in the emergency services have, however, been praised for their efforts on the night of the disaster, in what was the single biggest rescue operation in the UK since WW2. Some 250 firefighters and 100 paramedic crews attended the incident, supported by the police.
Four days after the fire, Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council was stripped of its responsibility to handle the event, after criticisms over its immediate response after the tragedy.
The council was also heavily criticised for its handling of safety concerns raised by residents prior to the event, including ignoring complaints that fire extinguishers had expired and that blockages and hazards on the central stairwell may prevent the quick evacuation of the tower block in the event of an emergency.
Since the tower fire last year, it has been discovered that lax building regulations led to the use of combustible cladding on many tower blocks across the country including other tower blocks in London and student accomodation across the country. It was this cladding which enabled the fire to quickly spread up the tower, instead of remaining in the flat where it started.
The structure of the building is also believed to have contributed to the large scale of the damage and the high death toll. Grenfell Tower was not equipped with fire sprinklers, nor did it have adequate means of evacuation; there was only one central stairwell in the block, and only one exit, on the ground floor.
As the inquiry into the fire continues, it remains to see what action, if any, will be taken against organisations or individuals who may be considered to have been negligent in their response to or in their actions prior to the disaster at Grenfell Tower. Issues surrounding housing and support for survivors also remain to be solved.
One year on from the tragedy, the CLV Phoenix remembers the victims of the fire, and sends its condolences to their families and all involved in the fire.
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