Government Failure and Dishonest Firms Led to Deadly Grenfell Tower Fire, Says Inquiry

Decades of failure from government and the construction industry to act on the dangers of flammable cladding resulted in the deaths of 72 people when fire engulfed Grenfell Tower, an inquiry has found. Inquiry Chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick further criticised building firms in his statement on Wednesday, saying that the west London tower block was covered in combustible material because of the “systematic dishonesty” of the companies that sold the insulation and cladding. Moore-Bick said, “We conclude that the fire at Grenfell Tower was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry to look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them.”...