The British central government and local councils, construction companies and firefighters have focused their criticism on the devastating final report published on Wednesday into the Grenfell Tower fire in London, which caused 72 deaths June 14, 2017.
Presenting his findings after seven years of investigation, former judge Martin Moore-Bick said: The disaster was “the culmination of decades of neglect” authorities and the private sector to address the risks associated with the use of combustible materials in construction.
According to the 1,700-page document, London Fire Brigade at the time lacked the training and strategy needed to deal with a fire in a 24-storey building, which It started when a refrigerator burned down in the room. and spread rapidly along the facade.
Apologies on behalf of the State
In a parliamentary statement, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmerapologized to the victims on behalf of the state and promised to veto the companies considered responsible from future contracts with the public administration.
Like Moore-Bick, he stressed that the tragedy was avoidable and admitted that the country failed “before, during and after” of the event to Grenfell residents, many of whom were council tenants.
Starmer has promised to respond to the former magistrate’s 58 recommendations within six months and has called on police to speed up the review of the case so that offenders are brought to justice.
The Mayor of London, his co-religionist Sadiq Khan -who came to power in 2016-, also stressed that the survivors have shown over the years “unwavering strength, dignity and courage in their struggle for justice.”
“The authors must be held accountable immediately for their systematic dishonesty, corporate greed, institutional indifference and neglect,” he said in a statement.
A new regulator
Moore-Bick, who listened some 1,600 testimonies during more than 300 hearings where 320,000 documents were analyzed, he argued that The fire was caused by institutional negligence and “systematic dishonesty”. from companies that manufactured and sold the coatings that helped spread the flames.
The former judge of the Court of Appeal denounced the existence of a “deliberate and sustained manipulation“fire controls, with biased interpretation of data and market deception by companies like Arconic, Celotex and Kingspan.
Moore-Bick regretted that the authorities and the construction industry “they have failed badly” to the neighbours of the 129-flat block in west London – now covered over to hide its charred skeleton – who made the fire possible with their “incompetence, dishonesty and greed“.
Its main recommendations include the creation of a single regulator for construction, reporting to a government department that oversees it, concluding that the management of building safety in the jurisdiction of England and Wales is “seriously flawed, complex and fragmented.”
He also advocated the creation of a Fire and Rescue College to improve the training of professionals, as well as techniques for examining the suitability of materials.
Following the publication of the report, London’s Metropolitan Police will analyse its contents over the next 18 months to determine whether crimes have been committed and can be brought to justice, while victims and their families call for those responsible to be punished.
