London: Grenfell Tower 6 Months On

To the displeasure of many, today marks the 6-month anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire. “Nobody understands how angry we are yet,” said Ishmael Francis-Murray, a neighbor to the burnt out building. “People don’t understand we watched 71 people die.”

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Much of the anger stems, not only from a litany of previous complaints warning of building dangers, but from inaction on the part of authorities to prevent a future tragedy. London Fire Bridge Commissioner Dany Cotton told Sky News, rather bluntly, that she could “never be able to say” such a fire “won't happen again. I just hope and pray it never does.”

While the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is one of London's most affluent boroughs, a virtual playground of monied families, pockets of disadvantaged communities housed in substandard building complexes remain. This was the case of Grenfell Tower.

Now, six months on, the flames engulfing the 24-story block of apartments in central London, claiming the lives of 71 people, including an unborn baby, and injuring dozens more, seem to continue to burn at the heart of community concerns.

Francis-Murray, a 35-year old father who was born in the tower, said local council authorities are “not helping nobody, they don't care about my mum, they don't care about my kids, they don't care about my estate or my community.”

He added that “The community response is the only thing that saved everything from burning down. And they know this, and they still don’t want to give the community any credit. They still want to call us immigrants or whatnot. But without us, nothing would’ve happened.”

To add insult to death and injury, despite foreign survivors being granted a temporary 12-month immigration “amnesty” for them to remain in the U.K. regardless of their immigration status, they may still face deportation after it expires.

While four out of five families who were left homeless by the deadly blaze continue to look for housing, according to the support group Grenfell United, another 118 households will remain in emergency accommodation or friends during the holidays.

Public trust in authorities has only deepened as a result of the official inquiry, led by retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick, into the fire. Also, the fire risk consultant who inspected Grenfell Tower reportedly told the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organization (KCTMO) to “bury” the fire safety assessment.

Carl Stokes, who was contracted by the property management company as their fire risk assessor, advised KCTMO of their right to withhold the report from London Fire Brigade, a damning statement which detailed the building’s many safety hazards.

According to Mail on Sunday, the company’s consultant stated that delivering the report of fire risks could potentially require KCTMO to undergo further, expensive “additional fire safety measures”.

Mostly excluded from the probe, Inquest, an organization supporting victims, urged for bereaved relatives and survivors to be placed “at the heart of the inquiry.”

The group's director, Deborah Coles, reiterated that “Grenfell is a shocking injustice” and that truth and justice can only be achieved if “ the bereaved and survivors are not lost and silenced.”

She added, “To assuage the profound anger and mistrust requires meaningful engagement of those affected, along with prompt, full and proper disclosure and a panel representative of the community. This can help instill confidence and encourage participation. Without this the inquiry will be flawed and will fail those seeking the truth and justice they deserve.”

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Adel Chaoui, who lost family members in Grenfell Towers, said that “families are desperate that the deaths of our loved ones are learnt from, and such a tragedy should never have repeated, especially after the 2009 fire in Lakanal House, which claimed the lives of six people and left at least 20 injured.

Those granted core participant status, survivors, bereaved families and their lawyers were finally granted permission to attend the main hearing room in Holborn, central London on this past Monday and Tuesday, according to The Guardian. A live video stream was made available at Notting Hill Methodist church, near Grenfell Tower, for those who were unable to travel to the inquiry.

However, far from simply attending the probe, Jade, a local resident who spoke shortly after the fire, asked, “This is one of the richest boroughs in London, so why aren't they doing more to help people? They have the money but the rich people only care about themselves, they don't care about us."

She concluded that that council “has money it could spend on helping these families but it hasn't happened.”