Grenfell Tower fire
On 14 June 2017, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London, at 00:54 BST and burned for 60 hours. Seventy people died at the scene, and two people died later in hospital, with more than 70 injured and 223 escaping. It was the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the 1988 Piper Alpha oil-platform disaster and the worst UK residential fire since the German Bombings of World War II.
Date
14 June 2017
00:54 BST (first emergency call)
24 hours (under control)
Over 60 hours (fully extinguished)
Grenfell Tower, North Kensington, London, United Kingdom
Electrical fault in a refrigerator; spread of fire largely exacerbated by flammable exterior cladding on the building[1]
- Government taskforce taking over parts of the RBKC council function
- Urgent fire safety tests on cladding from similar towers
- Independent review of building regulations and fire safety commissioned
- £200 million pledged from Government to replace similar cladding in other residential towers in England
72
74 (20 serious)
£200 million – £1 billion (estimated)[2]
Public inquiry hearings opened 14 September 2017. Final report due 4 September 2024.
Open for all 72 victims; pending police investigation and public inquiry
The fire was started by an electrical fault in a refrigerator on the fourth floor.[note 1] This spread rapidly up the building's exterior, bringing flames and smoke to all residential floors, accelerated by dangerously combustible aluminium composite cladding and external insulation, with an air gap between them enabling the stack effect.
The fire was declared a major incident, with more than 250 London Fire Brigade firefighters and 70 fire engines from stations across Greater London involved in efforts to control it and rescue residents. More than 100 London Ambulance Service crews on at least 20 ambulances attended, joined by specialist paramedics from the Ambulance Service's Hazardous Area Response Team. The Metropolitan Police and London's Air Ambulance also assisted the rescue effort.
The fire is the subject of multiple complex investigations by the police, a public inquiry, and coroner's inquests. Among the many issues investigated are the management of the building by the Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council and Kensington and Chelsea TMO (which was responsible for the borough's council housing), the responses of the Fire Brigade, other government agencies, deregulation policy, building inspections, adequate budgeting, fire safety systems, the materials used, companies installing, selling and manufacturing the cladding, and failures in communications, advice given or decisions made by office holders. In the aftermath of the fire, the council's leader, deputy leader and chief executive resigned, and the council took direct control of council housing from the KCTMO.
Parliament commissioned an independent review of building regulations and fire safety, which published a report in May 2018. In the UK and internationally, governments have investigated tower blocks with similar cladding. Efforts to replace the cladding on these buildings are ongoing. A side-effect of this has been hardship caused by the United Kingdom cladding crisis.
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry began on 14 September 2017 to investigate the causes of the fire and other related issues. Findings from the first report of the inquiry were released in October 2019 and addressed the events of the night. It affirmed that the building's exterior did not comply with regulations and was the central reason why the fire spread, and that the fire service were too late in advising residents to evacuate.
A second phase to investigate the broader causes began on the third anniversary in 2020. Hearings have concluded, and the Inquiry Panel are preparing their final report, scheduled to be published on 4 September 2024. Following publication, the Crown Prosecution Service will decide if criminal charges are to be brought.
In April 2023, a group of 22 organisations including cladding company Arconic, Whirlpool and several government bodies reached a civil settlement with 900 people affected by the fire.
Direct causes[edit]
Refrigerator[edit]
It was initially reported that the fire had been started by a faulty refrigerator.[151] Police confirmed on 23 June that a faulty fridge-freezer had initially started the fire and named the model as a FF175BP fridge-freezer produced under the Hotpoint brand by Indesit.[152] Owners of the types FF175BP and FF175BG were urged to register their appliance with the manufacturer to receive any updates. Sixty-four thousand of these models were made between March 2006 and July 2009, after which the model was discontinued. It is unknown how many are still in use.[153]
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) commissioned a product safety investigation into the Hotpoint FF175B fridge-freezer. Independent experts examined the remains of the appliance recovered from Grenfell and exemplar models of the same type. They concluded that the design met all legal safety requirements, and there was no need to issue a recall of the model. Consumer group Consumers' Association complained that the legal requirements were inadequate.[154][155]
Tenants had repeatedly complained about electrical power surges causing appliances to smoke and such a surge may have set the fridge-freezer on fire. The local authority knew about complaints and had paid tenants compensation for damaged appliances. Nonetheless, the surges continued. Judith Blakeman, a local Labour councillor, said the surges affected many appliances including fridges. Blakeman said, in July 2017, that the cause of the surges was never found.[156]
On 27 November 2018, evidence given to the Grenfell Tower inquiry by electrical investigating engineer Dr. J. Duncan Glover suggested that in Flat 16 the fridge-freezer compressor relay wiring was not tightly fitted.[157] In his view, this probably created additional electrical resistance leading to overheating and igniting the outer plastic insulation of the wire[157] at 90 °C (200 °F). Glover described the state of the fuse box following a short circuit to the compressor. During questioning, he compared US and UK safety standards, noting that US regulations require a steel back to the fridge to help contain a fire, whereas UK fridges were allowed to have only a plastic backing.
