LONDON — The 24-story Grenfell Tower apartment building in west London — with broken fire alarms and no sprinkler system — was wrapped in highly flammable cladding, which went up in a fast-spreading blaze in 2017, leaving 72 people dead and 70 others injured. It was the worst fire disaster in the U.K. since World War II. The government finally published the results of its inquiry into the fire Sept. 4.
The report admits the causes, including “systematic dishonesty” and “greed,” turned the tower into a “death trap.” Prime Minster Keir Starmer issued an apology on behalf of the British state.
Following the inferno, residents continued to campaign for the prosecution of those responsible. At a protest in 2021 placards highlighted the mountains of evidence about the responsibility of successive governments and those involved in the management and refurbishment of the block.
“Millions of documents have been uncovered to tell us what we already knew,” Karim Mussilhy, a member of Grenfell United, an organization of survivors and relatives of the fire, told protesters.
Seven years on, hundreds of thousands continue to live in dangerous buildings across the U.K. As of July this year, 4,630 buildings above 11 meters (36 feet) had cladding like that at Grenfell. Work to remove the dangerous material has yet to begin on half of them, the government admits.
Over decades, governments ignored safety warnings in pursuit of cost cutting. Legislation in 2020 finally made the installation of sprinkler systems compulsory in new buildings above 11 meters, but there is no requirement to fit them retrospectively, leaving many thousands with no protection from a similar disaster.
According to the inquiry report, Celotex, a company that manufactured the Grenfell fire insulation, “embarked on a dishonest scheme.” Another company, Kingspan, sold the flammable material without a relevant fire test and continued to do so for three years after the inferno.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it did not expect to charge anyone in connection with the fire until 2026, if at all.
The failure of all capitalist parties to address the urgent need for safe housing fuels anger among working people. “Workers don’t need the fraud of long inquiries and ‘better’ regulations,” Communist League leader Jonathan Silberman told the Militant.
“Our unions — working with residents — should demand the immediate installation of sprinklers and other protective measures.” Such demands are part of the fight “to bring building construction under workers control,” he said, and help advance the political organization of working people.