How the Grenfell tower fire unfolded as decision over demolition is made
The government’s decision to demolish Grenfell Tower has sparked fury amongst survivors and their families.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who is also Housing Secretary, revealed the decision last night, which was met with shock and anger by bereaved families who see the move as an attempt to put the disaster ‘out of sight and out of mind’.
Some 72 people were killed in the blaze, which ripped through the London tower block on June 14, 2017, due to being clad in combustible materials.
What is left of the tower has stood in place in the years since the disaster, with a covering on the building featuring a large green heart accompanied by the words ‘forever in our hearts’.
When was the Grenfell Tower fire?
The Grenfell Tower Fire occurred in the early hours of 14 June 2017.
The fire broke out in the kitchen of a flat on the fourth floor of the 23-storey block in North Kensington, and rapidly spread up the exterior of the building.
Four fire engines were sent to the block, with the first arriving five minutes after Kebede had called the fire brigade, just before 1am.
However the fire spread up and across the eastern side of the building before reaching the north side of the tower – with mobile phone videos showing the flames reaching the top of the building less than half an hour later.
The whole building had been engulfed in flames by 4.30am, with over 100 flats ablaze.
It was 24 hours before the blaze was finally brought under control, at approximately 1.14am on Thursday 15 June.
More than 250 London Fire brigade firefighters and 70 fire engines were involved in bringing the blaze under control, while over 100 London Ambulance Service crews on at least 20 ambulances were in attendance.
Specialist paramedics from the Hazardous Area Response Team, the police and London’s Air Ambulance were also involved in the rescue effort.
How did the Grenfell Tower fire start?
The fire originated in a fourth-floor flat, caused by a Hotpoint fridge-freezer.
Flames began in the kitchen of flat 16 and, via the kitchen window, soon spread to the building’s exterior.
Unsafe cladding lining the building was to blame for the fire spreading at such pace.
Highly-flammable Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding – which had polyethylene-cored panels – was ruled in 2019 in Part 1 of the Grenfell Inquiry as the ‘primary’ cause of the spread.
A number of other avoidable construction failures also contributed to the disaster, including the kitchen window in flat 16, which was found to be flawed in design.
How many people died in the disaster?
A total of 72 people are known to have died in the fire.
Of these, 70 are known to have died at the scene and another two passed away in hospital – one a day after the fire and another in January 2018.
More than 70 people were injured in the fire, while 223 others escaped.
Firefighters rescued 65 people from the building on the night of the fire.
Many of those who were at the scene have experienced significant mental health problems as well as PTSD – with one campaigner for the victims tragically dying by suicide after writing a note to say that the atrocity had wrecked her own life.
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What did the inquiry reveal?
The official report into the Grenfell Tower Fire has said that fewer people would have died if residents had been evacuated while it was still possible – highlighting ‘serious shortcomings’ in the response by the fire service.
The public inquiry’s first report into the blaze was released in September 2024 and highlighted ‘systematic’ failures by the London Fire Brigade (LFB) on the night of the disaster.
It also concluded that the fire started as a result of an ‘electrical fault in a large fridge-freezer’ in a fourth-floor flat.
Inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said that Behailu Kebede, who had lived in the flat, bore no blame for the fire.