'We should be angry'
Eight years since the fire, there has been no form of justice for Grenfell, says journalist Peter Apps
Netflix
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Many people know the Grenfell fire could have been avoided — that the companies involved in refurbishing the tower were negligent and that the fire service told people to stay put for far too long. But few will be aware of how clear the warnings were in the years before the fire, or the number of warnings that were missed. Not enough people know why this disaster was allowed to occur or who was responsible.
How many people know that David Cameron’s government was told by a coroner, four years before Grenfell, to review the rules covering combustible materials on the external walls of tower blocks and push for the retro-fitting of sprinklers after a fire in south London killed six people?
And how many know that, as ministers considered their response to this advice, amid a political climate that regarded regulations and regulators “enemies of enterprise”, a key civil servant, Brian Martin, said that they were not obliged to “kiss [the coroner’s] backside”?
Or that the warnings were there as early as 2001, when the government commissioned tests on the same cladding that would end up on Grenfell? In less than seven minutes the cladding failed catastrophically, burning so ferociously that the test was stopped for safety reasons. Yet nothing was done to stop it being sold or to check which buildings it was installed on. And this is just the government. As early as 2007 — ten years before the fire — Arconic, the US corporation that sold the cladding, had been warned that it risked causing a fire that could kill 60 to 70 people.
The cladding contains a core of polyethylene, a highly combustible plastic. The Grenfell Tower inquiry stated it was the “primary cause” of the rapid external fire spread. But tests demonstrating its terrible fire performance were suppressed. Instead, Arconic obtained certification that suggested it was suitable for use on high-rise buildings. Details about its fire risks and the fact that it was being sold for use on Grenfell went up the chain to senior staff members, but no one stepped in to prevent the sale.
The failures are widespread. Since Grenfell, some 5,000 buildings in England have been found to have dangerous cladding. Over 500 of those have the same or similar cladding to that used on Grenfell. The material was sold for use on buildings around the world, and continues to be used, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Eight years since the disaster, there has been no form of justice for Grenfell, whose residents had warned about the dangers of a fire long before the blaze. A police investigation is ongoing, but no arrests have been made. Change has also been too slow — from stripping dangerous cladding from other buildings, to planning how to safely evacuate them. A crucial part of ending that sluggishness is public awareness. This story needs to be told, heard, widely understood; it needs to make people angry.
Netflix’s clear-eyed documentary spells out what happened in all its heartbreaking, enraging detail. It doesn’t pull its punches: it shows the suffering of those in the tower — those who narrowly escaped with their lives and those who didn’t — as well as the long shadow this disaster continues to cast over the bereaved, the survivors and all those from the west London community.
In November 2022, as he closed the near- five-year inquiry into Grenfell, lead counsel Richard Millett KC concluded that, “there was nothing unknown or not reasonably knowable which caused or contributed to the fire and its consequences. As a result, you will be able to conclude with confidence that each and every one of the deaths that occurred in Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017 was avoidable.”
For too long the victims have been left to fight for justice alone. With this film, I hope that will change, as more people understand the depths of the failures that led to this catastrophe. PETER APPS
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Peter Apps is the author of Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen
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