The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Podcast

The Inquiry’s Phase 2 report was released this week, distilling 400 days of evidence and more than three hundred thousand documents. The report concluded the fire which killed 72 people was the culmination of “decades of failure” by government and others in the construction industry. It set out a “path to disaster” stretching back to the early 1990s and criticised organisations at every level. It...

In the early hours of the 14th of June 2017, a fire broke out in a tower block in West London. This fire was both a personal tragedy and a national scandal. It began in Flat 16 of Grenfell Tower. Before long, the flames reached combustible cladding and insulation, which had been installed on the outside of the building. Less than twenty minutes later, the fire had climbed 19 storeys to the top of...

As the sun rises, the local council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea are responsible for helping families try and find their loved ones and arranging accommodation for those who have just escaped Grenfell Tower. But as the situation spirals out of control, lost keys, “dehumanising” processes and slow support for residents lead to frustration and confusion. Presenter: Kate Lamble Produc...

When Ed Daffarn opens his door in the early hours of the morning of the 14th of June 2017, he is confronted by a wall of thick acrid smoke. As the combustible cladding and insulation burned, smoke gathered rapidly in the hallways and stairwells of Grenfell. It prevented many residents from leaving their flats - and ultimately, it is the smoke which killed those who died in the tower. The reason th...

On the top floor of Grenfell Tower, Marcio Gomes and his family are waiting. Outside, the fire has wrapped itself around 3 sides of the building. But Marcio can’t see any of this. He’s relying on the information given to him by 999 call handlers, and they are telling residents they are safest to remain where they are. Marcio has a decision to make: does he wait for firefighters to reach him, or do...

In the early hours of the 14th June 2017, the bell in North Kensington’s fire station begins to ring. Firefighter David Badillo assumes it is a routine house fire. He expects that he and his colleagues will extinguish it quickly and head back to the station. But when he ventures inside the tower, David Badillo realises that this fire is like nothing he’s seen before. In this episode, Kate tells th...

When Grenfell resident Ed Daffarn first heard about the multimillion pound refurbishment of the tower, he welcomed it. The estate had, in his view, become increasingly run down in recent years. But as the refurbishment progressed, he says residents felt their voices weren’t heard. Meanwhile architects and contractors selected materials which would burn easily in a fire. Kate looks at how cost-cutt...

Why didn't the civil service act on warnings about combustible building materials? You’ve probably not heard of Brian Martin but he’s central to the story of Grenfell. The civil servant responsible for the fire safety section of the building regulation guidance, he has described himself as the “single point of failure”. Kate talks to someone who tried to raise the alarm with him, and asks why he d...

A tale of “deliberate and calculated deceit”. Beneath the cladding, a layer of insulation surrounded Grenfell Tower. This too was combustible and on the night of the fire, contributed to how quickly the flames spread. The companies which produced this insulation have been accused of misleading the construction industry about how combustible their products were. In this episode, Kate looks through...

How manufacturers sold combustible cladding When Marcio Gomes found out that Grenfell Tower, where he lived, was going to be covered in cladding, he assumed it must be safe. Today we know this material was the main cause of the spread of the fire at Grenfell Tower. The cladding installed on the tower was made by French company, Arconic - it was highly combustible. Prior to the fire at Grenfell, Ar...

How a fire in Scotland in 1999 foretold the fire at Grenfell Tower. In 1999, a dropped cigarette started a tower block fire in a small town on the west coast of Scotland. The building, which had been recently clad in flammable materials, is said to have caught fire like matchwood. This was one of the first signs that combustible materials were being permitted in the building sector in the UK. Thes...

As the world wakes up to news of a fire in West London, questions start about who’s to blame. At 8.30am on the morning of the 14th of June 2017 Karim Mussilhy is searching for his uncle. It’s over seven hours since the fire started, smoke is still pouring out of the top of Grenfell Tower and a toxic smell is hanging in the air. While residents stare up at the building in shock and Karim scours the...

A new 10-part series about the Grenfell Tower fire and why it happened. As the public inquiry into the fire at Grenfell Tower publishes it’s final report, we’re releasing ten-part series looking into why the fire happened, and how it could have been prevented. For the past six years, a public inquiry has been hearing evidence about what lies behind the worst residential fire in UK peacetime in one...

After more than four years, more than three hundred thousand documents, four hundred days of testimony and around £150 million, the Inquiry heard its final evidence. Lawyers for the core participants put forward the arguments they think the chair of the Inquiry, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, should consider as he produces his final report. Lead Counsel Richard Millett said all the deaths at Grenfell Towe...

"I can’t undo the past, but I wanted to be a part of making things better” While the Inquiry has paused hearing evidence, Kate Lamble spoke in depth to Nick Hurd, a former Minister for Policing and the Fire Service and now the government’s independent advisor on Grenfell. She asked about his experiences while in government immediately after the fire and discussed what the future holds for the towe...

Toxicologist Professor David Purser told the Inquiry that the rapid spread of smoke was the principal cause of death, and that burning cladding panels and insulation were the main source of this poisonous smoke. The Inquiry also heard closing statements for Module 4, covering the immediate aftermath of the fire. From next week it will turn into an inquest, so for this reason the podcast will not b...

This week the inquiry heard closing statements for Module 6, outlining how combustible materials came to be tested, certified and regulated and ended up being installed on the outside walls of Grenfell Tower. Lawyers representing the Bereaved, Survivors and Residents said the Inquiry had exposed fault-lines in the “edifice of government” and another said the “seeds of the Grenfell Tower fire were...

This week, as we passed the fifth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, two expert witnesses levelled a series of fierce criticisms at the building safety regime. José Torero, head of the civil engineering department at a London university, described the competence levels among fire safety professionals as “extremely poor” and called for the Stay Put strategy to be abandoned. And Luke Bisby, pro...

This week, the Inquiry moved on from examining the aftermath of the fire and began hearing evidence from a series of experts in fire engineering. Luke Bisby, professor of fire and structures at Edinburgh University, described the results of a test on the cladding panels and insulation installed on the tower as the “most shocking experiment” he had ever seen. Barbara Lane, a fire safety expert, tol...

This week, the Inquiry heard about the confusion, lack of grip and poor communication within Whitehall, as ministers and civil servants dealt with the aftermath of the fire. Nick Hurd was given the initial responsibility for leading the government’s response, despite being only two days into his ministerial position at the time of the Grenfell fire. He described the government’s actions as “wholly...

This week, the Inquiry examined how central government responded to the aftermath of the disaster while continuing to hear about London-wide emergency response arrangements. The Chief Executive of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea took two days to ask for emergency help from other London councils, after being “leant on”. An email written by then Prime Minister Theresa May contained damni...

This week, the Inquiry continued to investigate the events immediately after the fire by digging deeper into what happened at local rest centres which were opened to support survivors. An official who volunteered to help with the relief effort described the scene at the largest centre as a shambles, with chaotic scenes, an intimidating armed police presence and a lack of organisation. The authorit...

This week we heard different views from senior managers as to how the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea coped in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire. We discovered that the chief executive initially rejected offers of support because he had “great confidence” in the council. And the inquiry heard reports that - on the night after the fire - some residents who had been evacuated from nea...

The Inquiry continued to hear evidence about the immediate aftermath of the fire. Rebecca Blackburn, a former Contingency Planning Officer for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, described scenes inside the town hall as “pandemonium”. Her boss told the inquiry he regrets that he didn’t speak up about weaknesses in the council’s emergency plans and accepted he was too late in making some d...

This week, the Inquiry moved on from the technical discussions of the building regulations and the role of central government to focus on the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire. Bereaved, survivors and relatives gave emotional evidence about their experiences directly after the disaster, saying they were “treated like criminals” with the authorities apparently most concerned about the...