London – The public inquiry into the deadly fire that tore through Grenfell Tower, a social housing block in central London in 2017, published its final report on Wednesday into the disaster that killed 72 people. The blaze – the deadliest in London since World War II – has been blamed on a litany of failings, from shoddy construction and materials to poor local management and inadequate fire safety standards.
Among the parties involved in the tragedy, the investigation showed that the American company Arconic, which manufactured and sold the building’s exterior cladding through a French subsidiary, was involved.
The report’s authors say the Pittsburgh-based company “deliberately concealed from the market the true extent of the danger posed by the use” of materials added to Grenfell Tower during a renovation, “particularly on high-rise buildings.”
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“By late 2007, Arconic had become aware of the serious concerns in the construction industry about the safety of ACM panels and had itself acknowledged the danger they posed,” the report states. “By the summer of 2011, it was fully aware that Reynobond 55 PE in cassette form [the material used on Grenfell Tower] “Reynobond 55 PE performed much less well in a fire and was considerably more dangerous than the riveted form. Nevertheless, the company was determined to exploit what it saw as weak regulatory regimes in some countries (including the UK) to sell Reynobond 55 PE in cassette form, particularly for use on residential buildings.”
CBS News has asked Arconic for comment on the allegations outlined in the report released Wednesday.
Investigation in progress
The first phases of the multi-year survey concluded that some of the companies that manufactured the materials used in the Grenfell Tower cladding, including Arconic, continued to market their products as safe, even though some employees knew they were flammable.
Emails shared with the inquiry appear to show that some Arconic employees were aware of the fire risk associated with the cladding used on Grenfell Tower, but the company continued to sell it anyway.
Asked in 2021 whether its employees were aware of the fire risks associated with Arconic’s cladding, Arconic told CBS News that it “continues to offer our full support to authorities as the investigation addresses the complex questions presented. It is not appropriate for us to comment further while the investigation is ongoing and before all the evidence has been presented in Phase Two.”
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“These businesses are continuing to operate as if nothing happened,” Karim Mussilhy, whose uncle was killed in the fire, told CBS News in 2021.
Following the deadly fire, apartment blocks across the UK that were clad with the same or similar external cladding materials have been found to be unsafe, leaving thousands of people trapped in unsafe homes and unable to sell because banks are not providing new mortgages on the properties in question.
“People should be safe in their homes. They shouldn’t feel like they’re going to sleep and not know if they’re going to wake up or not,” Mussilhy said in 2021.
Victims still demand justice
The Grenfell Inquiry was launched with a first hearing on 14 September 2017. Families of some victims and survivors have said they have been denied justice over time.
“This means that the criminal prosecution could not have taken place,” said Nazanin Aghlani, whose mother, Sakina Afrasehabi, was killed in the fire. She told CBS News’ sister channel BBC News that the prosecution should have taken place before the public inquiry.
She said the investigation had even given “all the people who should face criminal prosecution” a platform “to tell their side of the story.”
London’s Metropolitan Police said in May that no criminal prosecutions related to the Grenfell fire would be brought until 2026, according to the BBC. The police are expected to make a statement later Wednesday.
“We’ve been waiting seven years to get the facts in black and white,” Nick Burton, who was rescued from the 19th floor of the tower, told the BBC, hoping the report “will tell the truth about these companies and their role in the fire.”
“We need to know who is actually responsible, who actually made the decisions that led to this horror and who can actually be identified and charged,” Emma Dent Coad, a former MP for central London’s Kensington district, told the BBC.
