What started the Grenfell fire? Remembering Grenfell Tower tragedy date on anniversary - who were the victims?

72 people died at the tower - which local residents hope will be one day be turned into a memorial
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Today (14 June) marks five years since the deadly Grenfell Tower fire incident.

At 00:54 BST on 14 June 2017, a high-rise fire in the 24-story Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London, killed 72 people, two of whom died later in hospital.

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A further 70 individuals were injured in the incident, despite 223 people being able to flee the building.

It was the deadliest structural fire in the UK in almost 30 years, and the worst residential fire in the country since World War II.

Here is everything you need to know about it.

What happened at Grenfell?

The Lancaster West Estate, a council housing estate in North Kensington, included Grenfell Tower.

Clifford Wearden and Associates designed the 24-story tower in 1967 in the Brutalist style of the time, and the Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council approved its construction in 1970.

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120 one-bedroom and two-bedroom flats were housed in the 221-foot (67 metre) tall building; the top 20 levels were residential floors, each with a communal lobby and six residences totaling ten bedrooms.

Originally, the lower four levels were utilised for non-residential uses, but two lower levels were later converted to residential usage, bringing the total number of flats to 129, with a capacity of 600 people.

A defective fridge-freezer on the fourth story ignited the fire, which quickly crept up the building’s exterior, causing fire and smoke to spread throughout all of the residential floors.

The rapid spread of the flames was attributed to the air gap between the building’s cladding and external insulation, and the fire raged for nearly 60 hours until it was ultimately put out.

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Efforts to suppress the fire and rescue residents comprised more than 250 London Fire Brigade firefighters and 70 fire engines from stations around the city.

(Image: NationalWorld)(Image: NationalWorld)
(Image: NationalWorld)

Grenfell Tower, like many other tower blocks in the UK, was built with a "stay put" policy in mind in the case of a fire.

The idea being that if a fire broke out in one apartment, the flames would be contained for long enough for the fire department to arrive and extinguish them.

Only individuals who lived in directly impacted apartments would be expected to leave, and the structure was built with the assumption that a complete evacuation would never be required.

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There was only one central staircase (the UK, unlike many other countries, does not require a second under building regulations) and no centrally operated fire alarm.

The site was attended by around 100 London Ambulance Service crews with at least 20 ambulances, as well as expert paramedics from the London Ambulance Service’s Hazardous Area Response Team; the Metropolitan Police and London’s Air Ambulance were also on hand to help.

Who were the victims?

(Image: NationalWorld)(Image: NationalWorld)
(Image: NationalWorld)

72 people were killed in the Grenfell Tower fire.

They ranged in age from an unborn infant to an 84-year-old woman and were each someone’s father, mother, brother, sister, relative, friend, or neighbour.

  • Logan Gomes (floor 21): stillborn
  • Denis Murphy (floor 14): 56
  • Mohamed Amied Neda (floor 23): 57
  • Joseph Daniels (floor 16): 69
  • Mary Mendy (floor 20): 54
  • Khadija Saye (floor 20): 24
  • Debbie Lamprell (floor 19): 45
  • Maria del Pilar Burton (floor 19): 74
  • Rania Ibrahim, and Fethia and Hania Hassan (floor 23): 31, four and three
  • Nadia, Bassem, Mierna, Fatima, Zainab, Sirria Choucair (floor 22): 33, 40, 13, 11, three, and 60
  • Hesham Rahman (floor 23)
  • Anthony Disson (floor 22): 65
  • Zainab and Jeremiah Deen (floor 14): 32 and two
  • Ali Yawar Jafari (floor 11): 82
  • Gary Maunders (floor 19): 57
  • Majorie and Ernie Vital (floor 19): 68 and 50
  • Victoria King and Alexandra Atala (floor 20): 71 and 40
  • Mohamednur Tuccu, Amal Ahmedin, Amaya Tuccu-Ahmedin, and Amna Mahmud Idris (floor 19:) 44, 35, three, and 27
  • Kamru Miah, Rabeya and Husna Begum, Mohammed Hamid, and Mohammed Hanif (floor 17): 79, 64, 22, 28, and 26
  • Fathia Ali Ahmed Elsanosi, Abufars Ibrahim and Isra Ibrahim (floor 23): 73 and 33
  • Ligaya Moore (floor 21): 78
  • Vincent Chiejina (floor 17): 60
  • Abdulaziz, Faouzia, Yasin, Nur Huda, and Mehdi El-Wahabi family (floor 21): 52, 41, 20, 16, and eight
  • Khadija Khaloufi (floor 17): 52
  • Jessica Urbano Ramirez (floor 20): 12
  • Hashim, Nura Jemal, Firdaws Hashim, Yahya Hashim, and Yaqub Hashim Kedie (floor 22): 44, 35, 12, 13, and six
  • Steve Power (floor 15): 63
  • Eslah and Mariem Elgwahry (floor 22)
  • Berkti and Biruk Haftom (floor 18): 29 and 12
  • Gloria Trevisan (floor 23): 26
  • Sakineh Afrasiabi (floor 18): 65
  • Hamid Kani (floor 18): 61
  • Isaac Paulos (floor 18): five
  • Mohammad al-Haj Ali (floor 14): 23
  • Raymond “Moses” Bernard (floor 23): 63
  • Fatemeh Afrasiabi (visiting her sister on 18th floor): 59
  • Farah Hamdan, Omar, Malak, and Leena Belkadi (floor 20): 31, 32, eight, and six-months
  • Marco Gottardi (floor 23): 27
  • Abdeslam Sebbar (floor 11): 77
  • Sheila (floor 16): 84

Is it still standing?

Shortly after the fire, Grenfell Tower was clad in a protective wrap and supported by scaffolding, both to protect forensic evidence while also allowing the building to be demolished afterwards.

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Five years on, demolition is yet to have started, and is expected to begin no earlier than the incident’s fifth anniversary.

After the building is demolished, the community will be consulted on how the space should be used, and there are ongoing efforts to turn the location into a memorial.

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