Three years on from Grenfell Tower fire, survivors and families of 72 victims still wait for arrests, safety and justice
THE terrible toll of the Grenfell Tower blaze on survivors can be revealed today – three years after the disaster.
Almost seven in ten of those who escaped the tower block blaze on June 14, 2017, have needed care for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The figure was revealed in a study by Kensington and Chelsea council, which has been criticised by victims’ families.
A total of 72 people lost their lives after the cladding on the West London building caught fire, while 74 others went to hospital with non-fatal injuries.
And The Sun on Sunday can reveal those affected by the blaze have been offered compensation as low as £10,000 — while not one arrest has been made.
Grenfell United spokesman Karim Mussihly, 34, whose 57-year-old uncle Hesham Rahman died in the tragedy, said: “Three years on we are still here having to fight for justice.
“If this happened in a wealthier part of the borough, would people be in jail?”
Our probe also found around 56,000 people in 300 other blocks around the UK are still at risk as their buildings are covered in the same cladding that fuelled the fire at Grenfell.
AWAITING PERMANENT HOMES
And despite council chiefs’ pledges of swift action, it took two and a half years to permanently rehouse those whose flats were destroyed.
The last Grenfell residents to be given a home were Behailu Kebede, 47, and his family. It was the Hotpoint fridge in the dad-of-two’s flat that started the blaze.
He was exonerated from blame by Grenfell inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick.
He now lives in a flat that is big enough for his girlfriend and children.
His partner, who we are not naming for legal reasons, said: “Behailu is doing OK, but is up and down. He avoids watching the news because it upsets him.
“Lockdown has been really hard on us because we are stuck indoors, which is not easy, given what happened.”
Seven other families who lived near the tower still await permanent homes — despite the council spending £200million on 300 new homes for the 194 households that lived in the tower and surrounding area.
Mahmod Darabi, 51, who lived 150 yards from Grenfell, says he was offered a damp flat, then another on the 15th floor, which gave him a panic attack.
He lives in temporary accommodation in West London with his pregnant wife and two-year-old daughter.
Mahmod, who suffers from asthma and a heart condition, says: “I was asleep on the night of the fire. The firefighters kicked down my door and woke me up then took me to the church nearby.
“I spent several months living in a hotel afterwards. I got married after the fire.
“I feel we are not only forgotten, we are neglected.”
PUBLIC ANGER
A spokesman for Kensington and Chelsea said: “The council has always given choice to people when rehousing them, and we have a system which allows residents to select and view properties they are interested in.”
The council made £129million from selling property in the years leading up to the tragedy while slashing spending.
It saved almost £300,000 by using cheaper, more combustible cladding that made the tower block light up like a candle.
The council, which had £274million in the bank before the disaster, employed construction firm Rydon to carry out the refurbishment after it tendered a bid that was £2.5million less than its nearest rival.
A week after the blaze, public anger reached boiling point.
The council’s chief executive Nicholas Holgate resigned and was followed by its leader Nicholas Paget-Brown and deputy Rock Feilding-Mellen.
But last year 12 council leaders received a total of £93,174 in bonuses while 52 staff members working in housing got £131,804 — a rise of £28,509.
Campaign group Justice for Grenfell blasted the “vulgar” payments.
Getting justice for the dead has been painfully slow.
The blaze inquiry, which then-Prime Minister Theresa May vowed would leave “no stone unturned”, opened on September 14, 2017.
In January, one of two panellists appointed by the Government to advise the inquiry was forced to step down because they had links to the controversial cladding company connected to the tower.
A month later proceedings were paused again while companies and organisations involved in the cladding sought assurances from Attorney General Suella Braverman that their evidence would not be used against them in any future prosecutions.
'USING EVERY TRICK POSSIBLE'
Then in mid-March Covid-19 paused any hearings.
Proceedings are due to restart in three weeks.
Police have said they will not make any arrests until after the inquiry has concluded.
A source involved in the Grenfell legal proceedings said: “The firms whose executives are at risk of being prosecuted over the fire have employed well-paid lawyers who are using every trick possible to slow down the inquiry.
“They are clearly trying to kick this into the long grass to keep their clients out of jail.”
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Earlier this year it was revealed that some of the firms involved claimed in US legal documents that some victims had died from pre-existing medical conditions.
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Kim Taylor-Smith, Deputy Leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said: “We have been working hard to make the properties we bought into a place that families can call home, working with them to do so. We are nearly there.
“Council staff have never stopped caring and never stopped working, and this will continue to be the case when every family is in their new home.”
'£10k for loss of a child'
A LAWYER representing families of Grenfell victims has blasted offers of compensation that are as low as £10,000.
Maria Cristina Sandrin, who is acting for Italian architect Gloria Trevisan, said: “It’s totally unacceptable.
“The figures offered range from £10,000 to £60,000.
“Giving a value to the life of a child is impossible but a value as low as this simply opens up the wounds once more to a family suffering already.”
Gloria, a 26-year-old architect, lost her life in the blaze along with her boyfriend Marco Gottardi, 27.
They called their parents in Italy moments before they died to “say goodbye” as they were “about to go to heaven”.
Lawyers representing the couple and the other victims have launched a £1bllion US lawsuit against three firms at the centre of the tragedy – appliance giants Whirlpool, cladding supplier Arconic and insulation maker Celotex Corp.
All three deny any wrongdoing.
Marco’s lawyer Attilio Cheso said he was unaware of any compensation offer, adding: “The firms are trying to get the case heard in the UK, where any compensation would be lower than the US.”
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