Grenfell: what now?
I caught myself wondering what had happened to the victims of the Grenfell tower fire and when I got home I spent a few hours watching the gut-wrenching videos of residents and their relatives exclaim their pain, rightfully seeking for answers.
Which led me to write this.
- It occurred in the early hours of Wednesday 14th June. It is believed that the fire broke out after a broken fridge set ablaze on the fourth floor. The fire was not brought under control until a full 24hours later, but the London Fire Brigade’s vehicles can only reach heights of about 32m (105ft), which limited the impact of their efforts.
- As of 20/07/2017 Scotland Yard believes that 80 are dead, out of 350 residents. However, some who have escaped and others who had relatives in the tower claim that the death toll is much higher but police will not release the actual amount to prevent the potential outbreak of civil unrest.
- Reason: highly flammable Polyethylene insulated cladding was chosen to save £5000.
As I’m writing this it has been a month and eight days, the Metropolitan police deputy commissioner, Craig Mackey, recently said “The people we are taking advice from are some of the people who worked on 9/11 and the fall of the towers. It is an extraordinary size of crime scene and extraordinarily complex.” Whilst informing the London Assembly for the investigation. Meaning the extent of the fire was that severe, the aftermath needs to be examined by experts who dealt with the remains of the, unfortunate, 9/11 terror attack — mind you 2,996 people died during 9/11.
Despite being situated in the wealthiest borough of London (Kensington & Chelsea), Grenfell is among the 10% poorest areas in the country. In May 2016 the tower underwent an £8.6 million refurbishment, carried out by Rydon Construction — part of large transformation scheme for the local estate. The building was fitted with new exterior cladding, communal heating system, and new windows. Several reports have stated that the polyethylene insulated plastic cladding that was fitted is said to be the predominant reason as to why the fire expanded so quickly. Additionally, the tower did not have a sprinkler system and since 2014 the tower had undergone 16 checks, last one being 11 months before the fire, without any of the checks raising a fire threat. In fact, a blogger had written a post about the insufficient maintenance of the tower in 2013 (they received a letter demanding the blog to be taken down), stating that it “is strongly suggestive of years of ongoing neglect and criminal negligence of the fire safety systems at Grenfell Tower, we would suggest that the managing authorities need to take a long hard look at themselves, and how they manage this estate.”
Unfortunately, there seems to be signs of fetishisation of the victims as charity cases by the council and some supporters, most notably, Simon Cowell’s assembly of several British music acts who made a charity track dedicated to the victims; as of 23/07/17 the video has amassed 6,937,713 views on YouTube but the victims still do not seem to have been provided with the appropriate support. However, there are many volunteers, from across the country, who are working tirelessly to ensure in the meantime basic essentials are provided, such as water, toiletries and food.
Nonetheless, there are several questions that still need to be answered right now. Arguably, the most important one, right now, being how are the residents going to be reimbursed, both financially and physically? Whilst Theresa May authorised the delivery of £1 billion to the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland), to ensure their support so she can finally form a government, some of the survivors have been reallocated to “budget hotels”, Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith MP) has said that the governments offer to efficiently house the victims and ‘hotels being booked by the month’ is “lie” and Sajid Javid (Conservative MP) confirmed that of 220 households affected by the blaze, 169 have been offered temporary homes. However, the Communities Secretary has said that only 30 families accepted the offer, whilst 9 have actually moved in.
With the recent police killing of an unarmed black man identified as Rashan Charles — who is claimed to have ‘swallowed drugs’ — through choking, and tensions rising could all this lead to a repeat of the 2011 riots? Hopefully not, but the likelihood is very high.
