It’s been eight years, but harrowing images of the inferno engulfing the high-rise Grenfell Tower block of flats have stayed with us all.
The fire, which ripped through the 24 storeys and killed 72 residents, is now known to have been the worst residential fire since the Blitz in World War II in the UK.
While the seven-year Grenfell Tower Inquiry sought to get to the heart of this tragedy that never should have happened, families that lost loved ones and their homes are still fighting for justice, with no-one ever having faced criminal charges for the blaze. The 1700-page report, which followed the inquiry, blamed no individual factor, but rather ‘decades of failure’ by the UK government and the construction industry.
Now, a new Netflix documentary looks to shine a light on the events that led up to the Grenfell Tower fire, with Grenfell: Uncovered showing just how avoidable - in some instances - the fire was.
While the building’s exterior flammable cladding is one of the key reasons for the swift blaze, Grenfell: Uncovered also highlights a myriad of other factors that contributed to the fire - some avoidable, others not. Here’s what the film explores.
How did the Grenfell fire start?
Electrical fault
The source of the fire was on the fourth floor, with the back of a fridge-freezer catching alight on Wednesday 14 July 2017 at 12:54am. The resident of the flat, who had been living in Grenfell Tower for 25 years, immediately called emergency services after he heard the fire alarm in his home sound.
The man in question, who we are choosing not to name, was initially scapegoated by tabloids in the immediate aftermath of the fire – to such an extent that the police suggested he went into witness protection as they feared for his safety.
However, he has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing, and was never treated as a criminal suspect by police, only as a witness. The Grenfell public inquiry confirmed this. In 2018, Lawyer Rajiv Menon said his client “was a good man and had done nothing wrong”.
Cladding
It was the cladding, put on the outside of the building, that has famously been attributed to the quick spread of blaze across the 24-storey tower.
The outside of the building had been fitted with a new cladding in 2016, which consisted of an aluminium composite material (ACM) with polyethylene (PE) at its core. PE is highly flammable, which led to the quick spread of the fire.
In Grenfell: Uncovered, one expert described using this type of cladding as the equivalent of putting a petrol tanker on the outside of the building.
It was industrial company Arconic that sold the cladding panels that were used in the tower’s refurbishment in 2016, despite there having been other fires around the world that had spread due to the use of ACM.
Following the destruction of an office building in Bucharest, as well as a fire in Shanghai, and a fire in a residential building in France, changes were implemented in some European countries which meant this type of cladding could no longer be used on buildings. However, the UK still permitted it.
Government guidance at the time, specifically Approved Document B, allowed for the use of ACM panels with a Class 0 rating, which was widely interpreted as applicable to cladding on high-rise buildings.
In response to the claims in Grenfell: Uncovered, Arconic released a statement that read: “This product was safe to use as a building material, and permissible to sell in the UK. AAP did not conceal information from or mislead any certification body, customer or the public.”
Cosmopolitan UK has also contacted Arconic for any further statement.
‘Stay Put’
While the Stay Put policy was not necessarily the cause of the fire, the policy, implemented by the London Fire Brigade, may have stopped people from being saved.
‘Stay Put’ was standard practice in purpose-built blocks of flats before Grenfell. This is because of the way tower blocks are designed, which ought to mean fires are unlikely to spread from flat to flat.
It was also thought those unaffected by the fire would be safer, and would not be clogging up fire exits.
However, the speed in which the fire spread across Grenfell was ‘unprecedented’.
The London Fire Brigade had also never had formal training on cladding fires. When Grenfell residents called emergency services, they were informed to still ‘Stay Put’. This was only lifted at 2.35am, nearly two hours after the fire first started.
London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe told Cosmopolitan UK via email: “Our thoughts remain with the 72 people who lost their lives, the survivors, their families, and the entire Grenfell community. We must never forget the impact the tragedy has had on that community. We will continue to work in collaboration with the Grenfell community and our Community Forum going forward.
“On the night of the fire, the Brigade faced the most formidable challenge that any fire service in the UK has confronted in living memory. Staff responding to the fire on the night of the tragedy, as well as members of other emergency services who attended in support of the Brigade, showed extreme courage in the face of the most challenging of circumstances.
“In 2019, the Brigade accepted every recommendation from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report and have since implemented significant changes to how we operate. We have introduced important policies, new equipment, improved training and better ways of working, particularly in how we respond to fires in high-rise residential buildings, and Londoners are safer as a result. LFB has undergone a process of significant transformation in terms of its culture, leadership and ways of working. In March 2024, LFB announced the completion of all 29 recommendations directed to it as part of Phase 1.
“The changes we’ve made allow us to be better prepared to respond to a complex fire in a high-rise residential building, which was demonstrated at the New Providence Wharf fire in 2021 and Spectrum Building in the summer of 2024.
“Last year, we also accepted all the recommendations directed to LFB and fire and rescue services from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report. While HMICFRS, following an inspection of our service in June 2024, rated London Fire Brigade as outstanding or good in all operational areas.
“Despite these changes, we are not complacent. We owe it to the families and loved ones of the 72 people who lost their lives, the survivors, their families, the wider community and our staff to continue learning and improving, so we’re always prepared to respond effectively.”
Deregulation
Having come into power in 2010, former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron called for fewer regulations in order to make business interests more competitive and to allow more freedom of construction firms.
The Grenfell Inquiry found that the act of cutting red tape “dominated” thinking in government that “even matters affecting the safety of life were ignored, delayed or disregarded.”
The inquiry also reported that the then housing department was “poorly run” and fire safety had been left in the hands of a relatively junior official.
Brian Martin, head of technical policy for building regulation at the time of Grenfell, reportedly told staff at the Fire Protection Association in 2009 that the government would not act on adding further safety regulations “until there are deaths”, and reportedly said “show me the bodies” in response to tightening up fire regulations at the time – however, at the public inquiry, he denied making these comments.
Martin admitted in his closing statement at the Grenfell Tower public inquiry in 2022 that “there were a number of occasions where I could have potentially prevented” the disaster from happening, and described himself as “the single point of failure in the department”.
Martin has since gone on to be a fire safety expert witness and testified in 2023 at the first UK cladding tribunal case, as reported by The Times.
Cost-cutting
Grenfell Tower, being a large concrete building in the heart of the affluent Kensington and Chelsea borough, was considered an ‘eyesore’ for the more affluent residents that lived nearby, according to the documentary’s contributors. When a school and leisure centre were set to be built nearby, the council decided to freshen up the building by applying cladding as well as giving the block new windows.
In the initial plans of the Grenfell Tower Regeneration Project, architects specified a zinc cladding panel which would be completely non-combustible, in documents seen by The Guardian.
As the refurbishment went under way, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation held conversations with the contractors doing the work about ways to make the refurb cheaper.
This led to the zinc panelling being switched to the cheaper ACM cladding with a PE core – leaving 120 homes in the tower now covered in combustible plastic.
According to Peter Apps, a journalist who has worked extensively on covering Grenfell, it would have cost around £5000, or roughly £40 per flat, for a safer version of cladding to be used.
In 2018, the Tenant Management Organisation relinquished its role as a housing provider, with day-to-day management of these services returning to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. There are currently no staff employed by the Tenant Management Organisation who were in place when the tragedy happened.
In response to the claims in Grenfell: Uncovered, Elizabeth Campbell, the leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, said in a statement: “I apologise unreservedly and with my whole heart to the bereaved, survivors and residents of Grenfell for our failure to listen and protect them.
“The council have implemented early recommendations from the inquiry and are now working on the remainder.
“They will be commissioning an external independent review of their culture with an advisory panel made up of bereaved, survivors and residents to help hold them to account.”
The council declined to comment further when approached by Cosmopolitan UK.
Meanwhile, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation told Cosmopolitan UK in a statement:
“We are acutely conscious of the terrible impact that this tragedy has had on the bereaved, the survivors, their relatives, and the broader Grenfell Tower community. We accept that the TMO contributed to this and we are deeply sorry.
“We continue to offer our deepest condolences and sympathies to all those affected.
“We sincerely hope that the findings of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry will lead to safer homes for all those in social housing.”
How many people died in the Grenfell fire?
A total of 72 people died as a result of the Grenfell fire, with over 70 injured.
Per the BBC, the chairman of the Grenfell Tower inquiry, Sir Martin Moore-Bick said those who had died were ‘failed’, and that all their deaths ‘were avoidable’.
Marco Gottardi, 27
Gloria Trevisan, 26
Raymond Bernard, 63
Fethia Hassan, four
Hania Hassan, three
Rania Ibrahim, 31
Hesham Rahman, 57
Mohamed Neda, 57
Fathia Ahmed Elsanousi, 73
Isra Ibrahim, 33
Abufars Ibrahim, 39
Zainab Choucair, three
Mierna Choucair, 13
Fatima Choucair, 11
Bassem Choukair, 40
Nadia Choucair, 33
Sirria Choucair, 60
Firdaws Hashim, 12
Yaqub Hashim, six
Yahya Hashim, 13
Hashim Kedir, 44
Nura Jemal, 35
Anthony Disson, 65
Mariem Elgwahry, 27
Eslah Elgwahry, 64
Ligaya Moore, 78
Mehdi El-Wahabi, eight
Nur Huda El-Wahabi, 15
Yasin El-Wahabi, 20
Faouzia El-Wahabi, 42
Abdulaziz El-Wahabi, 52
Mary Mendy, 54
Khadija Saye, 24
Malak Belkadi, eight
Leena Belkadi, six months
Farah Hamdan, 31
Omar Belkadi, 32
Jessica Urbano Ramirez, 12
Gary Maunders, 57
Deborah Lamprell, 45
Marjorie Vital, 68
Ernie Vital, 50
Mohamednur Tuccu, 44
Amaya Tuccu-Ahmedin, 3
Amal Ahmedin, 35
Amna Mahmud Idris, 27
Fatemeh Afrasiabi, 59
Sakina Afrasehabi, 65
Isaac Paulos, five
Hamid Kani, 61
Biruk Haftom, 12
Berkti Haftom, 29
Vincent Chiejina, 60
Kamru Miah, 79
Rabeya Begum, 64
Mohammed Hanif, 26
Mohammed Hamid, 28
Husna Begum, 22
Khadija Khalloufi, 52
Joseph Daniels, 69
Sheila Smith, 84
Steven Power, 63
Denis Murphy, 56
Mohammad al-Haj Ali, 23
Jeremiah Deen, two
Zainab Deen, 32
Abdeslam Sebbar, 77
Ali Yawar Jafari, 82
Victoria King, 71
Alexandra Atala, 40
Logan Gomes (stillborn)
Maria Del Pilar Burton, 74
To support the loved ones of those lost in the Grenfell fire and to learn more about fundraising efforts, and keep up with news, visit the Grenfell Foundation
Kimberley Bond is a Multiplatform Writer for Harper’s Bazaar, focusing on the arts, culture, careers and lifestyle. She previously worked as a Features Writer for Cosmopolitan UK, and has bylines at The Telegraph, The Independent and British Vogue among countless others.
