Grenfell Tower survivors: ‘The system isn’t broken, it was built this way’

Survivors and family members say they didn’t need to wait seven years for an enquiry report that only told them what they already knew.

As a public inquiry released its report on the Grenfell Tower fire, survivors and relatives of those who died in the blaze said the findings had come too late.

Seventy-two people – 54 adults and 18 children – died in the fire that ripped through the high-rise tower block in the North Kensington area of London on the night of June 14, 2017. The blaze started in a fourth-floor kitchen just before midnight and, within three-and-a-half hours, had engulfed the entire 24-storey building.

Following a six-year inquiry, the final 1,700-page report concluded that the disaster resulted from “decades of failure” that put profit ahead of safety.

The report highlighted failures by successive United Kingdom governments, local council leaders, the fire service and the companies involved in the production and installation of the flammable cladding and insulation that allowed the fire to spread so rapidly.

Karim Mussilhy, 38, whose uncle died on the top floor of Grenfell Tower, told Al Jazeera that the community has been “failed in every single aspect … before, during and after the fire, by [the] government, by corporations, by local authorities, by police, everybody failed us”.