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| Version 13 | Version 14 |
|---|---|
| Grenfell Tower fire: council admits some residents may be rehoused outside area – latest updates | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 2.02pm BST | |
| 14:02 | |
| Some Grenfell residents to be rehoused outside the area | |
| People who have lost their homes in the Grenfell Tower fire may be rehoused in other areas of London despite commitments by the government to house them locally. | |
| Kensington and Chelsea Council said 110 households had been given temporary accommodation by Friday morning, and added that it is working to find more permanent homes. | |
| But the authority’s latest statement said: “While we will try do our upmost to ensure those affected remain in or near the borough, given the number of households involved, it is possible the council will have to explore housing options that may become available in other parts of the capital.” | |
| The households include people living in nearby blocks which have been evacuated because of the disaster. | |
| Housing Minister Alok Sharma told MPs on Thursday that the Government guaranteed “that every single family” from the Tower will be rehoused in the local area. | |
| Prime minister Theresa May gave a vaguer commitment. On Thursday she said: “I want to reassure the residents of Grenfell Tower – all of whom are in our thoughts and prayers – that the government will make every effort to make sure that they are rehoused in London and as close as possible to home.” | |
| 1.53pm BST | |
| 13:53 | |
| Boris Johnson accuses Labour of 'outrageous politicking' over fire | |
| Martin Belam | |
| Boris Johnson has posted on Facebook to accuse Labour of “outrageous politicking” over the Grenfell Tower fire. | |
| After lamenting that “there has sadly been some political game playing about the terrible fire in London,” the former mayor of London goes on to criticise his successor Sadiq Khan and the Labour party. Johnson defends his record on fire safety during his time as mayor, stating that the number of fires and number of fire-related deaths fell year-on-year during his tenure. | |
| Johnson is correct about fire safety improving during his terms as mayor. However, as this chart from the London fire brigade shows, that has to be seen in the context of a pre-existing trend downwards that had started well before Johnson assumed office in 2008. | |
| Johnson’s comments haven’t gone down entirely well on the social network. One of the comments prominently displayed under the foreign secretary’s post says: | |
| Gosh, Boris. So your opinion is more valid than the hundreds of fire fighters that are in direct opposition to your spin and lies? Man up for once and take it on the chin. | |
| Updated | |
| at 2.04pm BST | |
| 1.53pm BST | |
| 13:53 | |
| Holly Watt | |
| The lead architect for Grenfell Tower was Nigel Whitbread, who worked for Clifford Wearden and Associates. Whitbread is believed to live in Kensington, London, within half a mile of Grenfell Tower. | |
| The building began in 1972 and finished in 1974. It was renovated last year, with external cladding added to the design. Serious questions have been raised about the new cladding. | |
| Last year, the artist Constantine Gras described meeting Whitbread and escorting him on a tour around the estate. On the tour, Whitbread met residents and said it was “delightful to hear that residents thought flat arrangements worked well”. | |
| Whitbread wrote an article about the development, saying it was the “first and only tower block I designed”. | |
| In his article for Gras’s blog, Whitbread said that the Grenfell design had been influenced by the partial collapse of Ronan Point in Newham, east London, and was structured to stand for over a century. | |
| Whitbread said: “Ronan Point, the tower that partially collapsed in 1968, had been built like a pack of cards. Grenfell tower was a totally different form of construction and from what I can see could last another 100 years.” | |
| Whitbread, 78, said the Grenfell building was unusual in that it was designed so that “you could take away all those internal partitions and open it up if that’s what you wanted to do in the future”. | |
| Whitbread said he went for an unusual internal apartment layout. | |
| “I also don’t know of any other council built tower block in London or anywhere else in England that also has the central core and six flats per floor rather than four flats which is typically done on the London county council or Greater London council plans.” | |
| Whitbread and his team decided that “putting bricks one on top of the other for 20 storeys was a crazy thing to do”. | |
| Instead, we “used insulated pre-cast concrete beams as external walls, lifted up and put into place with cranes and they were so much more quicker”. | |
| Discussing last year’s renovations before the disaster, Whitbread said the cladding had improved the insulation, but changed the building’s appearance. “We lost some of this verticality in the recent recladding but it’s not the end of the world. And the building is now better insulated as we had different standards then.” | |
| Whitbread also said he was concerned about questions over the heating. He said: “I’m very much against knocking things down unnecessarily. I had heard that there had been problems a few years ago with the heating and it was no good and talk of the whole block having to come down. And I thought, if my heating goes wrong, I don’t want to pull my house down.” | |
| Updated | |
| at 1.59pm BST | |
| 1.44pm BST | |
| 13:44 | |
| Sandra Laville | |
| More than 70 people remain unaccounted for from the Grenfell Tower blaze and 30 are confirmed dead, it has been revealed. | |
| Police released updated figures on the fatalities as anger in the community grew over what residents said was a lack of information being released to them. | |
| In a press briefing that was marked by the anger of residents who shouted their own questions at police and fire service representatives, commander Stuart Cundy of the Metropolitan police said 30 people were now confirmed dead, including one victim who died in hospital. But he acknowledged that the number of fatalities would increase. | |
| The scale of the disaster became stark as it was revealed for the first time that 70 people were believed to be unaccounted for since the blaze. Police fear the fire was so intense and devastating that some victims may never be identified. | |
| Cundy said 12 bodies are in the mortuary but a number still remain in Grenfell Tower, where a dignified and careful retrieval operation would take place in hazardous conditions. But, he said, this could take many weeks. | |
| Cundy said he expected the death toll to rise further. “I do believe that sadly the number will rise. | |
| Updated | |
| at 1.50pm BST | |
| 1.41pm BST | |
| 13:41 | |
| Khan urges May to do more to help | |
| London mayor Sadiq Khan has written to the prime minister urging her to do more to help provide information to the families of the victims. | |
| In his letter Khan said identification of those killed could be sped up if the authorities abandoned protocols used after a terrorist attack. He wrote: | |
| The local community feels their grief has been made worse by the lack of information about their missing family members and friends. They are fully aware of the true scale of this tragedy but cannot comprehend why they are not being given more information. There is also insufficient support for victims on the ground. | |
| I appreciate that the authorities want to be absolutely certain that any information is correct before it is issued publicly, and the fire brigade, police and coroner are doing a heroic job obtaining this information in extremely difficult circumstances. While the current systems in place may work well for a terrorist attack, there are legitimate questions about whether they are still appropriate in situations where obtaining this information could take much longer. | |
| Khan also said the scale of this tragedy is “proving too much for the local authority to cope with on their own”. He said tower block residents are “terrified that the same thing could happen to them”. He wrote: | |
| This issue is not limited to the type of cladding fitted: the material it is attached to and how this has been achieved are also critical factors. It is crucial that other risks from renovation works are urgently and properly investigated, for example protection between floors. And we need to strengthen standards and recall processes around white goods, given the fire risk they can present. | |
| If the government has any reason to believe specific tower blocks could be at risk, residents should be rehomed in the local area immediately, while these checks take place. | |
| My letter to the Prime Minister, demanding answers, action and justice for those affected by the #GrenfellTower fire https://t.co/SmY1JCjftb pic.twitter.com/Ii1zRd2i5W | |
| Updated | |
| at 1.47pm BST | |
| 1.28pm BST | 1.28pm BST |
| 13:28 | 13:28 |
| Cladding on Grenfell was cheaper | Cladding on Grenfell was cheaper |
| Material used in the cladding that covered the Grenfell Tower was the cheaper, more flammable version of the two available options, an investigation of the supply chain has confirmed. | Material used in the cladding that covered the Grenfell Tower was the cheaper, more flammable version of the two available options, an investigation of the supply chain has confirmed. |
| Omnis Exteriors manufactured the aluminium composite material (ACM) used in the cladding, a director, John Cowley, confirmed to the Guardian. | Omnis Exteriors manufactured the aluminium composite material (ACM) used in the cladding, a director, John Cowley, confirmed to the Guardian. |
| He also said Omnis had been asked to supply Reynobond PE cladding, which is £2 cheaper per square metre than the alternative Reynobond FR, which stands for “fire resistant”. | He also said Omnis had been asked to supply Reynobond PE cladding, which is £2 cheaper per square metre than the alternative Reynobond FR, which stands for “fire resistant”. |
| “We supplied components for a system created by the design and build team on that project,” said Cowley. | “We supplied components for a system created by the design and build team on that project,” said Cowley. |
| Harley Facades confirmed it had installed the panels bought from Omnis in the work it performed on Grenfell Tower. | Harley Facades confirmed it had installed the panels bought from Omnis in the work it performed on Grenfell Tower. |
| Omnis sold ACM cladding to Harley Facades, which was responsible for installing it. | Omnis sold ACM cladding to Harley Facades, which was responsible for installing it. |
| Construction firm Rydon Maintenance was the lead contractor on the project but subcontracted elements of the work to smaller companies, including Harley. | |
| Updated | |
| at 1.42pm BST | |
| 1.26pm BST | 1.26pm BST |
| 13:26 | 13:26 |
| 1.25pm BST | 1.25pm BST |
| 13:25 | 13:25 |
| Hadley Freeman | Hadley Freeman |
| Almost exactly 24 hours after Downing Street said the prime minister couldn’t possibly meet victims of the Grenfell disaster because of security concerns, the Queen and Prince William’s visit to Latimer Road came with minimal security. | |
| They drove up in a green Range Rover – dog gates up at the back, although the corgis stayed at home – with so little fanfare several locals walked right past them, unaware of the identities of the latest well-wishers to Westway sports centre, applauding instead the firefighters who walked behind her. | |
| The centre, in the shadow of the now burnt-out shell of the Grenfell, has, in the past 48 hours, become a shelter for residents left homeless by the tragedy: the usually popular basketball courts are filled with boxes of donations while volunteers estimate about 30 people are still sleeping in the centre, many of whom almost certainly used to use the facilities for very different purposes. | |
| The Queen, in matching royal blue coat and hat, accompanied by her grandson, spoke first to volunteers and police officers before meeting some of the victims outside. “She looked like she had so much compassion, like she understood what we’ve been through,” said Rihanna Levi, 17, who spoke to her and lived next to the tower. | |
| “She spoke about how awful it must have been in the stairways when the lights went out and there was so much smoke,” Levi added. | “She spoke about how awful it must have been in the stairways when the lights went out and there was so much smoke,” Levi added. |
| “I can’t say I’m surprised because I always knew she was someone who cared,” said Vassilli Stavropol-Loren, who has lived in a neighbouring tower block for 34 years. “She understood the gravity.” | |
| How did they feel about the other politicians who have visited? “You could see Corbyn stands by his word,” said Rihanna Levi’s mother, Marcia. | |
| And the prime minister? Naomi, Rihanna’s 28-year-old sister, shrugged. “I have no words about that woman,” she said. | |
| She did, however, have plenty of words about the council. She said: “We’ve seen no one from the council. No one. And we can’t even get through to the TMO [tenant management organisation]. I have an eight-year-old child and yesterday we had to sleep in the park for four hours. But the police and firefighters have been terrific, always checking we have water.” | |
| The Queen and Prince William stayed inside the centre for 20 minutes, leaving at a leisurely pace and declining to pose for photos. At this point a small group of locals had gathered outside and started shouting at her, begging her to look at photos of their missing loved ones. The Queen glanced towards them, nodded, smiled and left. | |
| One man shouted furiously at her departing car, holding a photo of two babies he said were family members. He said they were “left to die in that tower,” adding: “Where was the Queen before this? Where was the government? Where was the media? You only come now! Left to die here by all of you, and the police, and firefighters.” | |
| “Not the police and firefighters,” another local said. “OK, not them,” he said. | |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 1.40pm BST | |
| 1.09pm BST | 1.09pm BST |
| 13:09 | 13:09 |
| Here are the main points from the Met commander Stuart Cundy’s press conference. | Here are the main points from the Met commander Stuart Cundy’s press conference. |
| The investigation | The investigation |
| The investigation will establish the facts. This will be about providing as best we possibly can answers for those that have been so deeply and tragically affected by the terrible fire here at Grenfell Tower. The investigation will look into what criminal offences may have been committed. It will be undertaken by a number of specialist detectives using expertise and specialism from other organisations where required. | The investigation will establish the facts. This will be about providing as best we possibly can answers for those that have been so deeply and tragically affected by the terrible fire here at Grenfell Tower. The investigation will look into what criminal offences may have been committed. It will be undertaken by a number of specialist detectives using expertise and specialism from other organisations where required. |
| Our specialist investigators and experts have examined what we believe is the original location where the fire started. Based on what we know there is nothing to suggest that the fire was started deliberately. | Our specialist investigators and experts have examined what we believe is the original location where the fire started. Based on what we know there is nothing to suggest that the fire was started deliberately. |
| It is important that we can find the answers as to what has happened and why. | It is important that we can find the answers as to what has happened and why. |
| If criminal offences have been committed it is us who will investigate that. | If criminal offences have been committed it is us who will investigate that. |
| The victims | The victims |
| Sadly, as I’ve said before, we always knew that the number of those that have died would increase. At this point in time we know that at least 30 people have died as a result of this fire. Sadly and tragically that includes one person who was taken to hospital and despite the very best medical care, from the NHS, has now sadly died. | Sadly, as I’ve said before, we always knew that the number of those that have died would increase. At this point in time we know that at least 30 people have died as a result of this fire. Sadly and tragically that includes one person who was taken to hospital and despite the very best medical care, from the NHS, has now sadly died. |
| Twelve of those victims have been taken to the mortuary. A number of those bodies, sadly still remain here within Grenfell Tower. | Twelve of those victims have been taken to the mortuary. A number of those bodies, sadly still remain here within Grenfell Tower. |
| The search for bodies | The search for bodies |
| There are no fires within the building … The conditions within Grenfell Tower are particularly hazardous. It is going to take us a considerable period of time to fully work through Grenfell Tower over the coming weeks to ensure that we complete our investigation here within the building itself. As an absolute priority, what we are all doing is, as quickly and with as much dignity as we can, recovering those that are still inside. Sadly we do not expected there to be any survivors. | There are no fires within the building … The conditions within Grenfell Tower are particularly hazardous. It is going to take us a considerable period of time to fully work through Grenfell Tower over the coming weeks to ensure that we complete our investigation here within the building itself. As an absolute priority, what we are all doing is, as quickly and with as much dignity as we can, recovering those that are still inside. Sadly we do not expected there to be any survivors. |
| Delay in identifying victims | Delay in identifying victims |
| I will only say something that I know to be true. I know at this point in time that there are at least 30 people that have died in this fire. The very nature of the intense fire that has occurred … I do believe that the number will increase. | I will only say something that I know to be true. I know at this point in time that there are at least 30 people that have died in this fire. The very nature of the intense fire that has occurred … I do believe that the number will increase. |
| The building itself is in a very hazardous state. It is going to take a period of time for our specialists, both from the police and the London fire brigade, to fully search that building to make sure we locate and recover everybody that has sadly perished in that fire. | The building itself is in a very hazardous state. It is going to take a period of time for our specialists, both from the police and the London fire brigade, to fully search that building to make sure we locate and recover everybody that has sadly perished in that fire. |
| I completely understand the need for those that have lost loved ones, that as quick as we can we are able to confirm that. | I completely understand the need for those that have lost loved ones, that as quick as we can we are able to confirm that. |
| The missing | The missing |
| We have specialist and dedicated family liaison officers supporting 36 families. It is difficult to know how many are missing. Through our casualty bureau we are working through often duplicate calls, where people have phoned in to report a loved one as missing. There are considerable number of those calls which we need to work through to identify the final number. As soon as we have a number that I’m content is accurate I will be sharing that. | We have specialist and dedicated family liaison officers supporting 36 families. It is difficult to know how many are missing. Through our casualty bureau we are working through often duplicate calls, where people have phoned in to report a loved one as missing. There are considerable number of those calls which we need to work through to identify the final number. As soon as we have a number that I’m content is accurate I will be sharing that. |
| The injured | The injured |
| The latest update from the hospitals is that we still have 24 people who are being treated, 12 of those are in critical care. Everybody who is in hospitals has been identified and their families are aware. | The latest update from the hospitals is that we still have 24 people who are being treated, 12 of those are in critical care. Everybody who is in hospitals has been identified and their families are aware. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 1.21pm BST | at 1.21pm BST |
| 12.37pm BST | 12.37pm BST |
| 12:37 | 12:37 |
| Khadija Saye named as victim | Khadija Saye named as victim |
| Caroline Davies | Caroline Davies |
| The artist Khadija Saye has been named as one of the victims, according to a family friend, the Labour MP David Lammy. | The artist Khadija Saye has been named as one of the victims, according to a family friend, the Labour MP David Lammy. |
| May you rest in peace Khadija Saye. God bless your beautiful soul. My heart breaks today. I mourn the tragic loss of a wonderful young woman pic.twitter.com/KdIPs34FvA | May you rest in peace Khadija Saye. God bless your beautiful soul. My heart breaks today. I mourn the tragic loss of a wonderful young woman pic.twitter.com/KdIPs34FvA |
| Saye, 24, was in her flat on the 20th floor with her mother, Mary Mendy. | Saye, 24, was in her flat on the 20th floor with her mother, Mary Mendy. |
| She had posted on Facebook that she was unable to get out of the flat because the smoke was too thick. Family members confirmed the news to Sky News. Saye, a photographer, had recently exhibited at the Venice Biennale. | She had posted on Facebook that she was unable to get out of the flat because the smoke was too thick. Family members confirmed the news to Sky News. Saye, a photographer, had recently exhibited at the Venice Biennale. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 1.11pm BST | at 1.11pm BST |
| 12.32pm BST | 12.32pm BST |
| 12:32 | 12:32 |
| Cundy was asked why it was taking so long to identify the victims. “I do believe the number will increase,” he said. The building is in a hazardous condition, he said. | Cundy was asked why it was taking so long to identify the victims. “I do believe the number will increase,” he said. The building is in a hazardous condition, he said. |
| He said he would only give figures the police are certain about. | He said he would only give figures the police are certain about. |
| Cundy is heckled by residents. | Cundy is heckled by residents. |
| He said he can’t say how many people are missing. Everyone being treated in hospitals has been identified, Cundy said. | He said he can’t say how many people are missing. Everyone being treated in hospitals has been identified, Cundy said. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 12.34pm BST | at 12.34pm BST |
| 12.26pm BST | 12.26pm BST |
| 12:26 | 12:26 |
| Met: 'we don't expect survivors' | Met: 'we don't expect survivors' |
| There is nothing to suggest the fire was started deliberately, Cundy said. | There is nothing to suggest the fire was started deliberately, Cundy said. |
| The investigation into the cause of the fire will take weeks, he added. | The investigation into the cause of the fire will take weeks, he added. |
| “Sadly we do not expect there to be any survivors,” Cundy said. | “Sadly we do not expect there to be any survivors,” Cundy said. |
| 12.24pm BST | 12.24pm BST |
| 12:24 | 12:24 |
| 30 people confirmed dead | 30 people confirmed dead |
| The Met police commander, Stuart Cundy, said: “We know that at least 30 people who have died.” | The Met police commander, Stuart Cundy, said: “We know that at least 30 people who have died.” |
| One of those included someone who was taken to hospital, he said. | One of those included someone who was taken to hospital, he said. |
| The bodies have been taken to a morgue, but more bodies remain in the building, Cundy said. | The bodies have been taken to a morgue, but more bodies remain in the building, Cundy said. |
| We always knew that the death toll would increase, Cundy said. | We always knew that the death toll would increase, Cundy said. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 12.28pm BST | at 12.28pm BST |