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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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<i>Right, okay.</i>

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<i>Get out! Get out!</i>

5
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We were first there.

6
00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:32,160
Um, first on the scene.

7
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Words can't explain it.
It was just mayhem.

8
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<i>Get out of the tower!</i>

9
00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:46,880
It felt like I was
in the middle of a disaster movie.

10
00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:55,720
Uh, that one whole side of the building
was just, like, completely in flames.

11
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I'd never seen anything like that.

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<i>Wow. It's</i> Towering Inferno, <i>innit?</i>

13
00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:04,080
<i>- Fuck.
- How is that possible?</i>

14
00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:14,080
When people saw
a disaster like this happening in the UK,

15
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there was this sense of, "How could this
have been allowed to happen here?"

16
00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:21,999
<i>It seems to me there's bits
of the building falling off now.</i>

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00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,359
<i>I've never seen nothing like it.
It's like we're having our own 9/11, mate.</i>

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00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:26,519
At Grenfell,

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you had something completely different,
which I'd never seen before,

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which was a fire
engulfing the whole building.

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<i>- Oh my gosh!
- How will someone help them?</i>

22
00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,920
And it was obvious that something
had gone desperately wrong.

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00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:42,079
<i>There are many questions,
most urgently about the cladding</i>

24
00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:43,160
<i>on this building.</i>

25
00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:45,920
<i>Arconic made the aluminum cladding
in question.</i>

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00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:51,759
I do remember thinking
somebody had been grossly negligent.

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What happened here? How did that get sold?
I don't understand that.

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Tests had been manipulated.
Tests had been hidden.

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We've got so much evidence now
of really serious wrongdoing,

30
00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:05,800
um, and still no one's been arrested.

31
00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:10,799
<i>The warnings this building
was a firetrap apparently went unheard.</i>

32
00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:12,839
<i>This is a police crime scene.</i>

33
00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:14,439
<i>- What do we want</i>?
<i>- Justice!</i>

34
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<i>- When do we want it?
- Now!</i>

35
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<i>We want answers!</i>

36
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I always think to myself, you know, "Why...

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00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:22,679
why did this have to happen?"

38
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People losing their lives, you know?

39
00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:27,800
Losing friends, family.

40
00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:31,639
I just think to myself, "Why?"

41
00:02:31,640 --> 00:02:37,600
<i>We want answers! We want justice!</i>

42
00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:56,599
<i>BBC News at four o'clock.
This is Fenella Fudge.</i>

43
00:02:56,600 --> 00:02:57,919
<i>Plenty of sunshine,</i>

44
00:02:57,920 --> 00:03:00,679
<i>and this sunshine is going to stay with us
throughout the day.</i>

45
00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:04,959
<i>The temperature, 24, maybe 25 Celsius.
We could even sneak...</i>

46
00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:06,639
<i>No change in the top three.</i>

47
00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:10,239
<i>Luis Fonsi's "Despacito"
made it a month at number one.</i>

48
00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:13,399
<i>It's now the longest-reigning
foreign language number one</i>

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00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:15,319
<i>in official chart history.</i>

50
00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:16,679
<i>Despacito...</i>

51
00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:18,440
Back in 2017,

52
00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:23,000
I remember quite a few famous songs
at the time.

53
00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:25,719
"Despacito" was a big one.

54
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Remember my mum kept playing it,
um, in the house and in the car.

55
00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:31,039
<i>...a besos despacito...</i>

56
00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:32,279
<i>It's your girl Esi,</i>

57
00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:35,399
<i>and you're listening
to the biggest station in West London.</i>

58
00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,479
<i>This is 100% the song of the summer.</i>

59
00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:40,839
<i>It's J Hus with "Did You See."</i>

60
00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:43,359
<i>Came in a black Benz
Left in a white one</i>

61
00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:46,120
<i>I'm just a hoodlum, uh, uh, uh</i>

62
00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:48,399
Yeah, yeah.

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<i>Did you see what I done?
Came in a black Benz</i>

64
00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:51,680
<i>Left in a white one</i>

65
00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:54,439
<i>I'm just a hoodlum
I came with the bonsam</i>

66
00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:55,919
{\an8}<i>When brothers wanna try some...</i>

67
00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:58,920
{\an8}I was excited
because I was going into year 8.

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00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:01,999
{\an8}You know, it was becoming summertime.

69
00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:03,360
It was becoming hot.

70
00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:07,560
I would definitely say I was very bubbly.

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Um, I was very happy.

72
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<i>Did you see what he did?
The black Benz...</i>

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00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:14,720
I always wanted to do good in my grades.

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00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:20,680
Yeah, I was...
I was a good, happy 12-year-old.

75
00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:26,159
<i>The A2 is building
westbound from Eltham towards Kidbrooke.</i>

76
00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:29,519
<i>Northbound traffic on the Blackwall Tunnel
southern approach is building</i>...

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I do remember later on that night,
we just went out for dinner.

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00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:39,800
By the time we drove back,
it might've been about 11:30.

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And then I got a text from a friend,

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"Fancy going on Xbox?"

81
00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:47,679
Played a few games.

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00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:51,080
Said, "Oh, I've got work tomorrow."
Switched off and went to bed.

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00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:54,560
So, yeah, it was as simple
as that, really.

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00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:59,279
<i>Feeling very warm again,
with a top temperature of 26 Celsius,</i>

85
00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:00,840
<i>79 Fahrenheit.</i>

86
00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:04,240
I think I went off to bed around midnight.

87
00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:08,959
I was, uh, sleeping in the gym
around that time,

88
00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:12,479
just because I didn't like
sleeping in the dorm...

89
00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,600
...um... with a load of smelly firefighters.

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00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:26,280
<i>Vio!</i>

91
00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:28,800
<i>Madness.</i>

92
00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:33,520
The bells went down at about five to one.

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00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:40,999
So, being the local station
at North Kensington,

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00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:42,920
Grenfell Tower is on our grounds.

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00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,840
On arrival, we saw some smoke
coming out of a window,

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00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:55,720
which we knew was where the fire was.

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We, uh, made our way into the tower.

98
00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:08,600
The two, um, firefighters got ready
in all their breathing apparatus.

99
00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:14,400
You could hear 'em breaking the door down,
and then they entered the flat.

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00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:18,199
It was your everyday kitchen fire,

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00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:20,840
which they managed to put out
quite quickly.

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00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:27,719
As you do after you've put the fire out,
you use your thermal imaging camera

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00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:30,919
to have a look around to check,
make sure there's no hot spots.

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And that's when they noticed
the droplets of flame dripping,

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00:06:35,840 --> 00:06:38,800
and they realized
that the fire had got out.

106
00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,160
{\an8}I've sent the second crew in
to back them up.

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00:06:45,840 --> 00:06:49,760
{\an8}I've been to other fires
where the fire has got into a flat above.

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{\an8}Although it was unusual,

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00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:56,079
it wasn't, um, beyond possibilities

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00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:59,440
that the fire could, um,
move up to the flat above.

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00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:03,279
So I had no reason to believe

112
00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:05,599
we wouldn't soon be
going back to the station

113
00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:07,840
to carry on our night shift.

114
00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:14,279
I'd got to the ground floor
where I met a young girl

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00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:18,040
who explained to me
that her little sister,

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00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:22,359
um, was on the 20th floor

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00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:27,239
and was it all right for her
to go up and get her?

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00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:28,640
She told me her name was Jessica.

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00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:37,599
I thought I would quickly go up
and bring her little sister down to her

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00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:39,880
and then carry on with what I was doing.

121
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I wasn't worried at all.

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00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:46,760
I pressed the 20th floor...

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...and, uh, suddenly the light came on
on the 15th floor.

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<i>Fifteen.</i>

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The doors opened...

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00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:06,119
...and a huge rush of black smoke
just filled the lift.

127
00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:07,959
I'm in trouble here. I need to get out.

128
00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:09,639
I need my breathing apparatus, for one,

129
00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:15,960
and I need to get down as quick as I can
to get this, um, girl out of her flat.

130
00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:19,959
<i>The breaking news
this morning that a major fire</i>

131
00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:22,600
<i>has engulfed a tower block in West London,</i>

132
00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:25,999
<i>and it's been confirmed as Grenfell Tower.</i>

133
00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,079
<i>Questions about how a building</i>

134
00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:29,999
<i>that is of a concrete construction</i>

135
00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:32,399
<i>could have been
engulfed by flames so quickly.</i>

136
00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:33,760
<i>Get out! Get out!</i>

137
00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:37,239
<i>The thing went up in seconds.
Just going up and up and up and up.</i>

138
00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:38,439
<i>I never seen nothing like it.</i>

139
00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:40,800
<i>It was like something
out of a Hollywood disaster movie.</i>

140
00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:50,400
I've been writing about Grenfell
for seven years.

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00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:53,439
If you added up
all the articles I've written,

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00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:55,520
it would be over 1,000 by now.

143
00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:04,000
When people saw a disaster like this
happening in London, in the UK,

144
00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:08,480
there was this sense of,
"How could this have happened here?"

145
00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:14,719
Because it shook people's sense
of the country they live in, I think,

146
00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:16,760
that that was a possibility here.

147
00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:19,680
It's changed my life, really.

148
00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:22,959
There was my career up until Grenfell,
and then there's my life since,

149
00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:24,400
and it's completely different.

150
00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:30,480
I'd only been the news editor
for, um, about five or six months,

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00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:34,720
which is kind of... a bit of a...
bit of a throw-in at the deep end.

152
00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:41,240
I think everyone probably remembers
the first time they saw those images.

153
00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:45,359
<i>To be honest,
you would not think a cement building...</i>

154
00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:48,240
I think in the aftermath
of a fire like Grenfell,

155
00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:52,039
there's a desire, I think,
among the media, I would say,

156
00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:55,999
to find a simple scapegoat,
a simple narrative.

157
00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,279
Someone whose picture
they can put in the paper.

158
00:09:58,280 --> 00:10:01,720
Someone who they can paint
as the bad guy who made this happen.

159
00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:08,759
<i>The Daily Mail</i> newspaper
ran a very aggressive piece

160
00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:12,160
which named the owner of the flat
where the fire started.

161
00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:18,319
There's a suggestion on social media

162
00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:21,519
that it's something to do
with, like, Islamic terrorism,

163
00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:23,879
when the guy is
an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian

164
00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:25,840
who had a picture
of the Virgin Mary in his flat.

165
00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:34,039
{\an8}He was an Uber driver.

166
00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:38,719
{\an8}He'd lived in a flat on the fourth floor
of Grenfell Tower for about 25 years.

167
00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,800
<i>It's the fourth floor.
Quick, quick, quick! Burning.</i>

168
00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:45,519
The police suggested
he go into witness protection

169
00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:47,559
because of the level of harassment.

170
00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:49,479
Because once <i>The Daily Mail</i> started,

171
00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:53,040
all the other newspapers were trying
to get their story about him too.

172
00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:57,279
He was a survivor, you know,
and a victim of what had happened.

173
00:10:57,280 --> 00:11:00,759
He... he had no responsibility at all

174
00:11:00,760 --> 00:11:03,759
for anything that happened
at Grenfell Tower.

175
00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:06,719
{\an8}<i>Today is 14th June...</i>

176
00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:08,519
{\an8}I did have this sense

177
00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:11,400
{\an8}that something has gone
deeply, deeply wrong here.

178
00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:17,239
So you wanna find people who understand
fire safety risks in high-rise buildings

179
00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:19,360
and just wanna ask them
as many questions as you can.

180
00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:26,560
I had got a phone call
early in the morning, and it was the BBC.

181
00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:30,120
And then Sky News. That was bad.

182
00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:36,320
So I went online to see the news.
I immediately saw a massive fire.

183
00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:42,400
I've been investigating fires
in high-rise buildings for some time.

184
00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:46,599
{\an8}When I first saw the images of the fire,

185
00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:49,440
{\an8}I knew it was probably
because of cladding.

186
00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:54,359
Very quickly, we started to look into ACM,

187
00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:56,000
which is a type of cladding.

188
00:11:57,040 --> 00:11:59,639
ACM is aluminum composite material.

189
00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:02,799
So you can see,
it's aluminum here and aluminum here.

190
00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:06,480
And then in the middle of it,
the thicker, darker part, is the polymer.

191
00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:12,280
Polymers are plastics.
All plastics... all plastics are flammable.

192
00:12:13,680 --> 00:12:17,920
The polymer that is in the middle,
the most popular one is PE, polyethylene.

193
00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:20,920
This happens to be a raw PE.

194
00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:26,759
We see that, actually,
the material then becomes very flammable,

195
00:12:26,760 --> 00:12:28,000
and it isn't safe.

196
00:12:29,680 --> 00:12:32,959
The reason why
aluminum composite material is dangerous

197
00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:37,200
is because fire spreads really quickly,
and it's difficult to put out.

198
00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:42,399
This is a building material
that's, by the 2010s, very popular.

199
00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:45,919
It's in use in buildings
in every continent.

200
00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:49,040
Millions and millions of square meters
of it are being sold.

201
00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:52,039
There were many companies around the world

202
00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:54,399
that were producing,
marketing, and selling ACM,

203
00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:55,800
and one of them was Alcoa.

204
00:12:56,840 --> 00:13:00,199
<i>You don't have to look far.
You're sitting in a hotel,</i>

205
00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:03,199
<i>sitting on a plane, checking your emails,</i>

206
00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:06,199
<i>there's a good chance
that the aluminium you're seeing</i>

207
00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:07,959
<i>has come from Alcoa alumina</i>...

208
00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:10,360
<i>...Alcoa alumina, Alcoa alumina...</i>

209
00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:13,759
{\an8}Alcoa was the Aluminum Company of America,

210
00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:15,560
{\an8}shortened to Alcoa.

211
00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:18,879
Sort of one of the older and bigger,

212
00:13:18,880 --> 00:13:21,759
historically, I would say,
prestigious corporations

213
00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:23,280
in the United States.

214
00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:27,399
A lot of products in different markets.

215
00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:29,160
Wings for airplanes.

216
00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:32,400
Aluminum panels
in the automotive industry.

217
00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:37,320
Very big on the stock market.

218
00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:41,759
There was a feeling
that the stock value could be unlocked

219
00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:43,279
by splitting up the company.

220
00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:46,720
<i>Arconic: Innovation, engineered.</i>

221
00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:49,400
That's what became Arconic.

222
00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:53,559
Arconic was a division of Alcoa,

223
00:13:53,560 --> 00:13:55,799
and it was their French arm
that handled the sale

224
00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:58,360
of the ACM PE cladding to Grenfell Tower.

225
00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:02,839
<i>As investigators assess the damage,</i>

226
00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:05,919
<i>one supplier has been
thrust into the spotlight.</i>

227
00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:07,079
<i>Arconic.</i>

228
00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:09,560
{\an8}Arconic made
the aluminum cladding in question.

229
00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:12,879
<i>Visible from miles away...</i>

230
00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:17,880
When the fire happened,
I found out Arconic had been involved,

231
00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:20,239
and I can remember thinking,

232
00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:23,240
"I really hope
they didn't put polyethylene panels."

233
00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:27,959
Because it's a petroleum-based product,

234
00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:30,720
it's gonna burn,
and it's gonna burn vigorously.

235
00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:34,159
So on a high-rise building,

236
00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:38,079
thinking about when you have
something that is highly flammable,

237
00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:40,920
people don't have the time to evacuate.

238
00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:43,759
<i>Families had been sleeping here.</i>

239
00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:46,600
<i>Some were still trapped inside.</i>

240
00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:48,799
And then later on,

241
00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:52,200
it came out in the news
that it had been the polyethylene panels.

242
00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:54,880
How did this get sold?

243
00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:59,719
Why was it sold? We wouldn't have
sold it that way in North America. Um...

244
00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:01,240
How... how did this happen?

245
00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:07,880
<i>Behind each window
was a home, many completely incinerated.</i>

246
00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:17,359
When I was offered Grenfell,

247
00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:20,800
I was slightly apprehensive
about living in a tower block.

248
00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:28,119
But my dad had always told me
that you'll know

249
00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:31,160
when you walk into a property
whether it's for you or not.

250
00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:36,519
I definitely had that feeling
when I walked into 134 Grenfell Tower.

251
00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:38,520
I did actually fall in love with it.

252
00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:44,439
I was at work, got a call from Andreia.

253
00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:46,320
She was like, "Yeah, I've got news."

254
00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:48,040
I said yes.

255
00:15:48,920 --> 00:15:51,079
We were gonna make, um...
make a home, really.

256
00:15:51,080 --> 00:15:52,600
Like, our permanent home.

257
00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:58,359
I think I was either two
or just about to turn two

258
00:15:58,360 --> 00:15:59,680
when we moved there.

259
00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:04,680
So, I... Like, I say Grenfell was my home.

260
00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:11,240
From my bedroom window,
I would always see the London Eye.

261
00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:14,799
I felt lucky, in a way,

262
00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:17,319
because we were getting,
like, a bird's-eye view,

263
00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:20,480
and obviously,
not a lot of people get that.

264
00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:29,720
{\an8}<i>Oh. Oh my days, man.</i>

265
00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:33,439
So we were sleeping.

266
00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:34,959
Now, when you're sleeping

267
00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:38,719
and you hear constant commotion,
it's not one thing that wakes you up.

268
00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:39,800
It's constant commotion.

269
00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:48,639
At that same time,
our neighbor banged on our door.

270
00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:49,879
Literally, bang, bang, bang.

271
00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:52,240
So Andreia got up to open the door.

272
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:56,319
It was Helen and her daughter, Lulya.

273
00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:58,360
They were like,
"There's a fire! There's a fire!"

274
00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:01,720
{\an8}And I said, "Come in.
Let's try and figure out what's going on."

275
00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:05,319
{\an8}I remember my neighbor was waking me up,

276
00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:07,519
and obviously, I thought that was weird.

277
00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:10,440
Why are you here
in the middle of the night?

278
00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:13,199
I was very confused.

279
00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:15,760
And then she told me
that there was a fire.

280
00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:21,199
My sister Megan, she was still sleeping.

281
00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:23,319
I asked my mum if I should wake her up,

282
00:17:23,320 --> 00:17:25,039
{\an8}and my mum said, "No, not yet,

283
00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:27,640
{\an8}just in case, you know,
there's no need to."

284
00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:35,520
{\an8}You know, I thought the fire was just
gonna stay in that flat and that was it.

285
00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:41,159
I was trying to look
out the window from the 21st floor.

286
00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:44,680
All I can see was the lights
from the, uh, fire brigade.

287
00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:51,879
Yeah, I felt everything was gonna be okay.
I... I didn't feel in danger, um, at all.

288
00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,159
And I still didn't really...

289
00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:56,760
...comprehend the scale of the fire.

290
00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:01,400
<i>Anyone with LFB?
Anyone with LFB receiving? Over.</i>

291
00:18:02,840 --> 00:18:06,440
I knew that I needed
to find this little girl, Jessica.

292
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:08,239
I was really worried,

293
00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:11,640
'cause smoke was everywhere,
and this little girl's on her own.

294
00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:15,520
Ran down the stairs.

295
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:19,760
Don't remember passing anyone else,
any public or firefighters.

296
00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:22,800
I got to the ground floor.

297
00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:25,559
<i>Receiving.</i>

298
00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:27,679
It was pandemonium by this time.

299
00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:29,439
<i>Bravo Sierra One, receiving</i>...

300
00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:31,039
A lot of chat on the radio.

301
00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:32,640
<i>Confirm your location...</i>

302
00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:36,039
Firefighters
in breathing apparatus waiting to go in.

303
00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:38,639
<i>Units, just make way.
Just make way. Update us.</i>

304
00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:39,840
Got my BA set

305
00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:43,080
and kind of jogged into the building.

306
00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:49,080
When I saw two firefighters
from my station,

307
00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:53,239
I explained that Jessica
was on the 20th floor

308
00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:56,000
and we need to get up there
to get her out.

309
00:18:57,600 --> 00:18:59,560
We looked for Flat 176.

310
00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:02,760
The door was slightly ajar.

311
00:19:05,120 --> 00:19:07,680
The flat was, um... filled with smoke.

312
00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:11,560
We searched the flat twice.

313
00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:16,800
We were shouting. We was banging.
We was doing everything we could.

314
00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:22,040
But we couldn't find her.

315
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,280
We desperately hoped
she had, um, left the flat...

316
00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:28,719
...and made her way downstairs.

317
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:30,839
<i>They're there! They're waving their light!</i>

318
00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:32,400
Yeah, that's what I hoped.

319
00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:39,640
<i>There's someone
waving their light! Can you not help them?</i>

320
00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:45,119
In the UK,
we have this policy called Stay Put,

321
00:19:45,120 --> 00:19:49,039
which is the belief
that we've built buildings in a way

322
00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:52,200
that means the fire will stay in the flat
where it started for two hours.

323
00:19:55,120 --> 00:19:59,439
And the London Fire Brigade place
complete faith in the Stay Put policy

324
00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:01,719
and this idea
that fires in UK tower blocks

325
00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:03,360
never spread from flat to flat.

326
00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:08,239
But by 1:30 in the morning,

327
00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:12,839
the fire has started to enter
dozens of flats around the tower.

328
00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:15,160
There's dozens
of individual flats on fire.

329
00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:22,160
Despite these conditions in the building,
people are being told to stay put.

330
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:28,079
I was lying in bed,

331
00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:33,720
and I hear my neighbor's smoke alarm
going "ping, ping, ping."

332
00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:39,680
And then about, like, five minutes later,
I heard some shouting.

333
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:43,800
And at that time of night,
that really wasn't normal.

334
00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:48,279
And, like, my first thought was like,
"We've been advised to stay put."

335
00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:52,879
"I... I think what I'll probably do
is just, like, stay in my flat,

336
00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:54,719
call the fire brigade."

337
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,519
But at that moment, my mobile phone rang.

338
00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:00,679
It was a neighbor of mine from downstairs

339
00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:03,159
who'd already managed
to exit the building.

340
00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:04,559
And he shouted at me.

341
00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:07,359
He shouted at me in such a powerful way,

342
00:21:07,360 --> 00:21:10,159
"Get out! Get out of the building!"

343
00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:13,199
There was something so powerful
about what he said

344
00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:15,800
that I just made the decision
there and then, "I'm gonna go."

345
00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:21,839
And then joined
the kind of, like, small crowd

346
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:23,800
of some residents, some onlookers.

347
00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:30,640
That fire was so violent.

348
00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:35,800
That was the most violent thing
that I've ever, ever seen in my life.

349
00:21:42,360 --> 00:21:46,640
My first phone call to the LFB,
I think I was still quite calm.

350
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,439
I didn't wanna try and portray any nerves

351
00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:54,600
or being scared or anything
to... to the girls.

352
00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:01,600
Now we're in this flat,
Flat 183, 21st floor.

353
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:04,480
I'm here with my pregnant wife.

354
00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:08,599
Andreia was seven months pregnant
with a baby boy.

355
00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:09,920
She's asthmatic.

356
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:12,959
I remember them saying
they were speaking to the command center

357
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:14,040
and would send help.

358
00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:19,240
I said it to the girls,
"Let's just be prepared to go,"

359
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:24,080
'cause the idea was as soon as
they bang on the door, we're getting out.

360
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:30,400
I know my dad called them multiple times.

361
00:22:32,360 --> 00:22:34,480
They were telling us to stay inside.

362
00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,880
But the fire was getting closer,
so it didn't make no sense.

363
00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:41,880
<i>Yeah, we got movement.</i>

364
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:47,359
I remember me and my mum,
you know, kept telling him, you know,

365
00:22:47,360 --> 00:22:49,279
"Call them back. Call them back."

366
00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:52,439
<i>- Oh my gosh!
- How will someone help them?</i>

367
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:54,279
<i>Please.</i>

368
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:57,560
<i>- Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!</i>
- <i>Can you help them?!</i>

369
00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:04,719
<i>Central to the tragedy
of Grenfell, flammable cladding.</i>

370
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:08,760
<i>The cladding made by Arconic,
a multinational corporation.</i>

371
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:12,920
In September 2007,

372
00:23:14,120 --> 00:23:17,160
Arconic's marketing manager,
a guy called Gerard Sontag,

373
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:20,959
took a corporate trip
to an industry conference in Norway.

374
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:23,399
...LDPE. This is a low-density...

375
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:25,759
One of the presentations
given at that conference

376
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,079
was about aluminium composite material.

377
00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:30,879
...with a thin layer of aluminium...

378
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:32,719
About how dangerous this product was.

379
00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:34,639
Aluminium coating is usually only...

380
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:36,359
And it actually compared it

381
00:23:36,360 --> 00:23:41,239
to sticking a petrol tanker
to the outside of a building.

382
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:42,759
Once the composites are...

383
00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:45,639
So it's about as clear
and stark a warning as you can imagine.

384
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:47,679
...composite material will start to fall...

385
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:50,839
There's a member of Arconic's
senior team sitting in the audience,

386
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:52,159
listening to this presentation.

387
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:53,839
...smoke can be seen for miles.

388
00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:56,079
He came back from this quite frightened,

389
00:23:56,080 --> 00:24:01,280
knowing that Arconic was selling
the flammable version of the ACM.

390
00:24:04,360 --> 00:24:09,480
What he did was write
a very blunt warning to his seniors

391
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:16,720
of a fire involving this material
killing 60 to 70 people.

392
00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:22,480
And that warning was made in 2007,
ten years before Grenfell.

393
00:24:24,360 --> 00:24:26,399
But unfortunately,

394
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:29,600
I don't think that warning would have
come to those people as a surprise.

395
00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:37,199
Because Arconic had actually
already tested that product,

396
00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:39,320
but they were keeping that result secret.

397
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:45,480
Arconic ran two tests.

398
00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:51,359
One of them tests the product
when it's fitted to a wall

399
00:24:51,360 --> 00:24:53,360
and hammered in with rivets.

400
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:59,879
The other one tests the product
when it's been bent into an L shape

401
00:24:59,880 --> 00:25:04,479
and then hung and clicked into rails
which hold it onto the building.

402
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:06,680
What they would call cassette shape.

403
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:12,720
The difference between rivets
or cassettes is mostly about aesthetics.

404
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:19,759
And what we have learned is that
the cassette one, by bending the ACM,

405
00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:23,759
it allows a pool of the fire drips
to accumulate.

406
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:27,039
And that creates a massive fire
at the bottom of the cassette,

407
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:29,040
and it happens every one of the cassettes.

408
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:33,599
{\an8}It burns ten times as quickly.

409
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:37,160
{\an8}It releases seven times as much heat,
three times as much smoke.

410
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:45,279
Arconic reacted in a way that,
instead of embracing the results,

411
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:50,039
learning from them and delivering safety
to people through their products,

412
00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:51,999
they pretty much did the opposite.

413
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:53,920
And I wish they had acted on it.

414
00:25:56,080 --> 00:26:00,360
In 2011, Arconic did another test
of the ACM cladding.

415
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:04,680
What they discovered was a very fast,
very large fire that had to be stopped.

416
00:26:07,360 --> 00:26:10,239
Claude Wehrle was
a technical manager at Arconic

417
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:11,400
during this period...

418
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:16,880
...and actually, ironically enough,
a volunteer firefighter.

419
00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:21,319
So the laboratory emailed Claude,
and they said,

420
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:24,840
"Hello, Mr. Wehrle. We have performed
a test on your reference."

421
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:27,800
"Note:

422
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:30,879
Fall of large pieces of the small wing,

423
00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:34,799
widespread fire on the surface,
reaching critical values,

424
00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:37,720
resulting in the termination
of the ongoing test."

425
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,599
If a product fails a test,

426
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,279
you contain product or you stop product,
you stop production.

427
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:50,080
You don't let anything else
go to the customer.

428
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:54,080
You would never ignore and walk away.

429
00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:58,240
Nothing changed. They kept selling it.

430
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:01,919
There's an internal Arconic email
where they say,

431
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:04,999
"The grade of the panel
following the test today is an F."

432
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:07,639
Which is just uncategorized.
It'd be ungradable.

433
00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:09,520
And then just the word "oops."

434
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:22,399
They learned that once you bent
this product into a certain shape,

435
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,799
you were gonna get
this terrible result in a fire.

436
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:30,559
And, unfortunately, that is the shape
that it ended up being used in

437
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:31,800
on Grenfell Tower.

438
00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:43,439
The most thing that I used to love
is having my coffee

439
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,239
next to my window in Grenfell Tower,

440
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,800
listening to different types of music
with my brother, Mohammad.

441
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:57,600
That life is very peaceful.

442
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:01,360
The tower used to look nice.

443
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,639
I was like, "Okay, I mean,
that's a good place. Let's move there."

444
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:11,199
So me and my brother, Mohammad,
moved to this apartment

445
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:15,240
around September 2016.

446
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:22,920
Me and Mohammad,
we had just one year, like, between us.

447
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:26,600
We were very close.

448
00:28:28,120 --> 00:28:31,040
He was my best friend, I would say,
not just my brother.

449
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,479
I managed to get into university.

450
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:39,000
As well, the same for my brother,
Mohammad.

451
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:41,480
Then we managed to find a job.

452
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:46,840
We were... we were happy together.
We were happy in that apartment.

453
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:58,760
That night, I started to hear some noise.

454
00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:04,800
People outside screaming,
ambulance cars, police cars.

455
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,599
Straight away, I left my room,
and as soon as I left my room,

456
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:11,759
I saw as well
my brother in the corridor area

457
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:13,640
saying, "Omar, I can smell smoke."

458
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:20,760
We had our pajamas on.
We were like, "Let's leave."

459
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:22,759
As soon as we opened the door,

460
00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:25,840
we were shocked by the amount
of the smoke in the corridor.

461
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:34,679
We went to the windows.

462
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:38,200
We are, like, shouting to the people,
saying, "Hey! Hey! Help!"

463
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:44,960
Police or fire brigade told us,
like, "Stay. We are coming to you."

464
00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:50,399
We were like,
"Okay, they're doing something,

465
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:52,799
and they will come to us to bring us out

466
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:56,360
or, like, give us some...
something to protect us and then leave."

467
00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:00,480
Coming from Syria,

468
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:03,320
for me, like, living in the UK,

469
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:07,280
I was thinking
that I am in the right, safe place.

470
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:21,839
In the years
leading up to the Grenfell fire,

471
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:25,359
there were a lot of groups pushing
the government quite hard for change

472
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:27,480
in terms of building safety regulations.

473
00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:32,239
And that was particularly
because of a fire in 2009

474
00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:34,760
at a building called Lakanal House
in South London.

475
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:41,159
<i>Firefighters arrived
at the building within minutes,</i>

476
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:42,959
<i>but the blaze was so ferocious,</i>

477
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:46,439
<i>it was hours before they reached
the bodies of the six victims,</i>

478
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:48,880
<i>which included two children and a baby.</i>

479
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:53,560
It was a quick, very fast, ferocious fire.

480
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:57,199
{\an8}There was combustible
and flammable material,

481
00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,719
{\an8}um, used in the building's fabric,

482
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:04,840
{\an8}which contributed to the speed of the fire
at the time.

483
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:11,159
Lakanal House was a huge opportunity
for this country to take notice

484
00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:13,280
and to improve fire safety measures.

485
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:20,760
Our group was meeting
with various MPs in Westminster.

486
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:27,319
We did push for change as hard as we could
without physically door-stopping them

487
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:32,160
and grabbing them by the hand,
or even the neck.

488
00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:40,319
I had to work out ways to prove
that the guidance relevant to fire

489
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:42,800
was not fit for purpose.

490
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:46,959
It was badly designed for use,

491
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,839
and there was, uh,
factually incorrect information provided.

492
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:54,199
You would have to start the document
at the beginning, then flip to the back,

493
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:57,080
then flip to somewhere in the middle,
and it was just awful.

494
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:02,880
After the Lakanal House fire,
there was a coroner's inquest,

495
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:08,319
which resulted in the coroner
writing a letter to government

496
00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:11,800
and to the London Fire Brigade
which called for change.

497
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:15,240
She said we needed to train call handlers.

498
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:19,199
The London Fire Brigade needed to work out
how to fight fires in a high-rise building

499
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:20,680
when they got out of control.

500
00:32:21,200 --> 00:32:23,479
Government policy needed to define

501
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:25,800
when we switched away
from the Stay Put policy.

502
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:29,079
<i>Many sheltered in their bathrooms,</i>

503
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:34,040
<i>and when they phoned 999,
the fatal advice was to stay put.</i>

504
00:32:36,600 --> 00:32:38,159
Well, I think, with hindsight,

505
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:40,199
had the advice been to get out
earlier in the call

506
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:41,639
when the people were involved,

507
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:45,760
then that may have contributed to them
staying alive or being saved.

508
00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:51,559
It's out there. It's a letter.
It's black and white, and it's clear.

509
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:55,439
The letter that the Lakanal House coroner
wrote to government was really important,

510
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,560
but unfortunately,
it landed at a really bad time.

511
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:02,679
One of the key aims of this coalition

512
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:07,239
is to massively reduce
the number of rules, laws, and regulations

513
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:09,879
that, frankly,
treat all of you like idiots.

514
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:11,199
We're gonna have a new rule,

515
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:13,199
which is that any minister
in my government

516
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:16,439
who wants to introduce a regulation
has to scrap one first.

517
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,159
Which we've now changed
to the "one in, two out" rule.

518
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:22,759
You've gotta get rid of two regulations
if you want to introduce a new one.

519
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:26,599
One of David Cameron's
driving political ideologies

520
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:27,959
was deregulation.

521
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:30,759
He believed that the state had no place

522
00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:33,159
telling private businesses
what they should and shouldn't do.

523
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:37,399
We want to get out of your way
by deregulating, by cutting your taxes.

524
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:42,119
{\an8}Excessive rules have given the impression
that we have a right to a risk-free life.

525
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:45,119
So, effectively, what he'd done was ban

526
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,599
new fire safety regulations
being introduced,

527
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:49,240
even if they were necessary.

528
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:54,319
As the prime minister said,
we're going to release

529
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:58,999
{\an8}some of our brightest,
most intelligent civil servants

530
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,479
{\an8}to kick the living daylights
out of bureaucracy.

531
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:04,119
...there is new legislation,
then perhaps micro...

532
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:07,199
Eric Pickles was
the most senior politician

533
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:11,599
with responsibility for housing,
for planning, for building regulations,

534
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:14,240
and, for a time, some fire policy as well.

535
00:34:15,240 --> 00:34:19,879
By dismantling interfering,
intrusive laws and regulations,

536
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:22,359
we can do even more for less.

537
00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:23,999
- It's great to be here.
- Mr. Pickles.

538
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,399
He wanted less regulation on business.

539
00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:31,519
So what the coroner was asking them to do
was increase regulation.

540
00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:35,279
And internally, a civil servant wrote,

541
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:38,519
"Well, the law requires us
to <i>respond</i> to the coroner,

542
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:40,759
but we don't actually have to do
what she says."

543
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:42,559
{\an8}And the way he phrased that was actually,

544
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:45,920
"We only need to respond to the coroner.
We don't need to kiss her backside."

545
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:48,720
And that civil servant was Brian Martin.

546
00:34:50,240 --> 00:34:53,879
{\an8}Uh, good afternoon, everybody.
Um, it was interesting...

547
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:56,040
{\an8}He was certainly a character.

548
00:34:56,560 --> 00:34:59,159
{\an8}He did have an interesting manner to him.

549
00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:03,360
He had a bit of a reputation
for being very difficult.

550
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:06,799
I joined the Civil Service
not 'cause I wanted to work hard.

551
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:08,679
And so it came as a...

552
00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:11,239
came as a bit of a shock
when, um, pretty much,

553
00:35:11,240 --> 00:35:13,199
that's what we've been doing ever since.

554
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:16,760
Brian Martin had more power than most MPs.

555
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:18,799
We all had to go to him,

556
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:20,960
and he was the gateway
through to government.

557
00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:25,079
He was tasked
with the building regulations

558
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:26,919
with respect to fire safety.

559
00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:29,079
<i>Got the strategy division at the top.</i>

560
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:31,959
<i>I'd like to tell you what they do.
I haven't worked it out yet.</i>

561
00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:35,000
<i>Um, but they're very busy being strategic.</i>

562
00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:38,999
In terms of pushing
Brian Martin to effect change,

563
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:41,400
we asked him what needed to happen.

564
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:43,439
And he did say to me

565
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:46,440
that government won't do anything
until there are deaths.

566
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:51,800
And he allegedly said
to colleagues of mine,

567
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:54,480
"Show me the bodies."

568
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:19,200
The LFB are overwhelmed
in the call center.

569
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:21,999
The volume of calls is unlike anything

570
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:23,880
these call handlers
have ever experienced before.

571
00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:32,519
They're overflowing now
to other control rooms around the country.

572
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:35,080
That's what happens if so many 999 calls
are coming in at once.

573
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:46,759
But all of these call handlers
give the orthodox advice

574
00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:50,280
to residents of tower block fires,
which is, "Stay put."

575
00:36:57,440 --> 00:36:59,719
We know that, from the Lakanal House,

576
00:36:59,720 --> 00:37:01,119
they could have realized

577
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:03,440
that this was the wrong call
for a high-rise building.

578
00:37:10,160 --> 00:37:12,800
And what they don't have is a television.

579
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:16,080
There's a plasma screen TV in the room,
but it's not working.

580
00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:18,639
So what they don't see at any point

581
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:21,480
is a visual image
of what's happening at Grenfell Tower.

582
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:25,359
All they have on their screen
is a line of information,

583
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:28,480
which says, "Fourth floor kitchen,
partially alight."

584
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:05,360
I can't remember the exact road
where I first saw the tower.

585
00:38:09,240 --> 00:38:10,519
But it was over to my left,

586
00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:13,400
and fire coming up
one side of the building.

587
00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:15,600
<i>How is that possible?</i>

588
00:38:16,240 --> 00:38:19,159
I don't ever remember
being in Grenfell Tower before,

589
00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:21,320
so I didn't understand,
I didn't know the layout.

590
00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:26,760
I was really focused on just
getting inside and doing what we could do.

591
00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:31,360
We were struck
by how narrow the stairs were.

592
00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:34,479
Firefighters were coming down
with casualties, people.

593
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:36,119
They'd call out, "Casualty!"

594
00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:38,959
Every time we heard that, you're moving
into the corner of the stairwell

595
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,599
with your cylinder on your back,
trying to give as much space as you can.

596
00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:45,439
And people are coming down crying,
coughing, spluttering.

597
00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:47,200
Some conscious, some unconscious.

598
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:50,159
It felt chaotic.

599
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:55,480
It felt... like everybody was caught
a little bit off guard by this.

600
00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:00,760
After waiting, the firefighters arrived.

601
00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:05,640
So we're like, "Okay.
Uh, are we leaving now?"

602
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:08,919
He was like, "No, you need to move all

603
00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:11,960
to the apartment next to you,
and we're gonna come back to you."

604
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:16,199
I remember, like,
as soon as I entered that apartment,

605
00:39:16,200 --> 00:39:18,040
seeing a lot of people there,

606
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:22,400
including the resident of the flat
and his family.

607
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:26,040
I've seen Zainab

608
00:39:27,720 --> 00:39:28,920
and her son.

609
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:32,760
Denis.

610
00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:36,640
And then there was my brother and me.

611
00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:40,999
Mohammad brought a Quran
from our apartment.

612
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:43,319
For some time, he was reading Quran.

613
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:47,600
He was like, "This is gonna help."
And it kept him, like, strong as well.

614
00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:51,680
But we didn't understand
what's gonna happen next.

615
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:57,440
All I wanted, really, was to be rescued.

616
00:39:58,080 --> 00:39:59,919
Andreia was seven months pregnant.

617
00:39:59,920 --> 00:40:02,280
She's also asthmatic, and so is Megan.

618
00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:07,079
Just wanted an air tank,
some kind of mask,

619
00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:09,119
so that we can... we can go.

620
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:13,559
I remember my dad, um,
filling up the bathtub with water

621
00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:17,599
and, uh, literally just
putting in so many towels,

622
00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:19,000
making sure they're drenched.

623
00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:23,279
Each moment,
things was getting worse and worse,

624
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:26,159
to the point when I opened the door
to see what was going on,

625
00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:27,519
it was just smoke.

626
00:40:27,520 --> 00:40:28,920
<i>Why are you crying?</i>

627
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:31,160
<i>You are crying.</i>

628
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:41,999
The smoke was extremely thick, black.

629
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:45,999
Every time I opened the door
and... and tried to breathe,

630
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:47,959
it was just a gagging sensation.

631
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:50,240
Uh, couldn't...
It was, like, chemically-infused.

632
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:59,920
Smoke from plastics
is particularly toxic. It's asphyxiating.

633
00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:02,999
You breathe something
that will make you cough.

634
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:04,319
It will make you sick instantly.

635
00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:07,040
It will quickly... make you faint.

636
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:09,559
You start to lose consciousness.

637
00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:12,440
And you don't even realize
that you're losing consciousness.

638
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:15,840
The smoke was starting to get thicker.

639
00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:20,119
It was dirty smoke.
This was very dirty smoke.

640
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:24,480
Couldn't see a hand in front of your face.
Torches weren't making no difference.

641
00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:29,840
We were burning.
We were feeling extreme heat then.

642
00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:34,359
None of it made sense,
why it was so extremely hot in there.

643
00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:36,120
None of it made sense to me.

644
00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:41,199
<i>This tower was redecorated
from the outside recently</i>

645
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:43,759
<i>as part of a council initiative.</i>

646
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:46,519
<i>They've covered it
with, like, a kind of plastic paneling</i>

647
00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:48,639
<i>to make it look neater,
make it look better.</i>

648
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:52,279
<i>They suspect that that might not
have been a safe construction.</i>

649
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:55,960
<i>It's all right. They've been warned.
Just make sure no one else ducks under.</i>

650
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:02,519
My brother, Raymond, aka Moses,

651
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:06,000
he lived on the 23rd floor in Flat 201.

652
00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:12,999
{\an8}He was a real cheeky, cheeky person.

653
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:14,519
{\an8}He had a beautiful smile.

654
00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:17,840
{\an8}When he smiled at you,
you kind of melted into his smile.

655
00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:22,959
<i>Sitting...</i>

656
00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:24,840
Ray grew up in Trinidad.

657
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:29,240
He came to the UK
when he was 16 years old.

658
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:33,440
You know, calypso was part of his thing.

659
00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:37,079
So, yeah, he was big in the carnival

660
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:41,679
until age, I guess,
with his arthritis, took hold

661
00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:43,840
and he can't jump around anymore.

662
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:48,840
He lived in Grenfell Tower
for over 30 years.

663
00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:53,039
<i>Sitting in the park...</i>

664
00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:54,879
I did most of Ray's admin,

665
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:58,839
so I would either write or call
the tenant management organization,

666
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:00,280
known as the TMO.

667
00:43:01,240 --> 00:43:05,319
If I had to sum up my relationship
on behalf of my brother

668
00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:09,400
with the council slash TMO,
I would say it was appalling.

669
00:43:09,920 --> 00:43:12,439
After all, he was paying to live there.

670
00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:15,880
It wasn't a gift.
He wasn't living there free of charge.

671
00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:20,880
We were kind of just being
treated as if we didn't matter.

672
00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:24,440
Almost seen as, you know,
we're working class or poor.

673
00:43:25,240 --> 00:43:26,920
But that was far from the truth.

674
00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:31,719
You had IT consultants.
You had people that worked in NHS.

675
00:43:31,720 --> 00:43:34,159
You had teachers. You had architects.

676
00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:36,640
It wasn't a poor tower.
It was a working tower.

677
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:41,440
Grenfell Tower was in Kensington,

678
00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:46,120
which, even in the context of London,
is an unusual place.

679
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:50,479
Kensington is both
one of the wealthiest areas of London

680
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:52,080
and one of the poorest.

681
00:43:53,720 --> 00:43:59,799
The tower was an eyesore
for the affluent who lived in the area.

682
00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:02,160
And I think it just kept
property prices down.

683
00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:07,639
Grenfell Tower was built in the 1970s,

684
00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:10,480
but it had not been well looked after
by the council.

685
00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:14,160
There'd never been a major refurbishment.

686
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:19,719
This new, glossy school
and leisure center complex was being built

687
00:44:19,720 --> 00:44:23,199
but it had this tower block next to it,
which didn't look quite so good.

688
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:27,639
And so they said, in internal emails,
that maybe overcladding Grenfell Tower

689
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:29,279
would be a good idea

690
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:32,800
because it would help the tower
appear less of a "poor cousin."

691
00:44:33,720 --> 00:44:35,399
They were gonna overclad the building.

692
00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:37,879
They were gonna
put new windows into the tower.

693
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:40,519
The windows really weren't
fit for purpose anymore.

694
00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:43,919
The cladding came as a kind of...
like, a bit of a shock to us all.

695
00:44:43,920 --> 00:44:45,959
I didn't even know it was called cladding.

696
00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:48,240
- I don't even think I'd heard that word.
- No. Yeah.

697
00:44:51,960 --> 00:44:54,479
So when the architects
first designed the cladding system,

698
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:58,839
they specified a zinc cladding panel.

699
00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:00,839
Um... and that would be
completely non-combustible.

700
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:02,160
It's just made of metal.

701
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:06,960
I attended pretty much
every single consultation meeting.

702
00:45:08,200 --> 00:45:10,199
We were never, ever shown

703
00:45:10,200 --> 00:45:14,120
hard, you know, copies
of what the cladding was gonna look like.

704
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:19,800
The council went out to the market
to try and find the cheapest contractor.

705
00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:25,200
In the end, the organization they found
was a company called Rydon.

706
00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:29,959
During the refurb, Ray and I often spoke,

707
00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:33,560
and he often said to me,
"The workmanship is really poor."

708
00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:37,759
Myself and others
who stood up and questioned,

709
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:39,160
we were labeled rebels.

710
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:40,599
We raised concerns

711
00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:43,519
with one of the senior managers
from Rydon's at that point

712
00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:48,039
and said, you know, "How would you like it
if this was being done in your home?"

713
00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:50,039
And he turned round to us and he said,

714
00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:52,799
"If I was getting it for nothing,
I wouldn't mind."

715
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:56,959
That comment sums up
the whole way that we were treated

716
00:45:56,960 --> 00:46:01,039
by Rydon's, TMO, RBKC.

717
00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:04,479
We were scroungers.
We were getting something for nothing.

718
00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:06,159
We didn't deserve anything,

719
00:46:06,160 --> 00:46:08,760
"So just shut up
and let us get on with the work."

720
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:12,760
<i>South Kensington,
change for the Piccadilly line.</i>

721
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:14,839
During the refurbishment,

722
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:17,759
the Kensington and Chelsea
Tenant Management Organization

723
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:20,040
would hold conversations with Rydon

724
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:23,679
about ways they could strip
even more money out of the job.

725
00:46:23,680 --> 00:46:25,400
"How can we save every penny?"

726
00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:30,279
And one of the first things they did
to save that money

727
00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:32,599
was switch that zinc cladding panel

728
00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:35,519
for the cheapest cladding product
they could find.

729
00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:37,839
And the cheapest cladding product
they could find

730
00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:42,000
was aluminium composite material
with a pure polyethylene core.

731
00:46:44,120 --> 00:46:47,400
And Arconic sold the cladding
for use on Grenfell Tower.

732
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:54,639
And I found out that, in 2009,

733
00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:57,440
there was a fire
at an office block in Bucharest.

734
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:03,679
And this alarmed
Technical Manager Claude Wehrle,

735
00:47:03,680 --> 00:47:05,920
because it was a building with ACM on it.

736
00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:11,080
He found images of that fire online
and sent them to his seniors.

737
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:16,800
{\an8}The fire in Bucharest wasn't the last time
these warnings were raised.

738
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:22,999
The industry were concerned
about the number of building fires

739
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:26,760
because a number of them
had this type of cladding.

740
00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:30,120
There was another fire,
this time in France.

741
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:32,399
And this one was, sadly, a fatal fire.

742
00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:34,800
It killed a disabled woman
inside the building.

743
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:44,239
There were changes in France which meant

744
00:47:44,240 --> 00:47:46,399
that the more combustible type
of this cladding

745
00:47:46,400 --> 00:47:47,639
could no longer be sold there.

746
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:50,239
And there were other countries
around Europe

747
00:47:50,240 --> 00:47:51,680
that brought similar changes in.

748
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:54,559
But Claude Wehrle's view was,

749
00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:58,439
"We can still work in markets
which are not as restrictive."

750
00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:01,199
And, unfortunately,

751
00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:04,400
the UK was a market
that was not restrictive.

752
00:48:05,480 --> 00:48:07,559
There were internal emails
where Arconic said,

753
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:10,680
"You can do anything in England
with this combustible product."

754
00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:19,679
At the time of the Grenfell renovation,

755
00:48:19,680 --> 00:48:21,839
the technology was PE.

756
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:26,520
And then you had the FR material,
which was, uh, flame retardant.

757
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:32,440
In North America, there were
certain projects that called for the FR.

758
00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:36,079
Particularly if it was
over two stories high,

759
00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:37,920
you were gonna go for FR.

760
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:44,159
The refurbishment
finally finished in 2016,

761
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:47,479
and the council were pleased
with the work they'd done.

762
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:52,599
A press release went out saying
that it was remarkable to see firsthand

763
00:48:52,600 --> 00:48:56,000
how the cladding had lifted
the external appearance of the building.

764
00:48:58,240 --> 00:49:04,680
But you now had 120 homes
covered in highly combustible plastic.

765
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:10,999
I didn't think the building
needed any doing up.

766
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:13,320
It was just a concrete tower.

767
00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:16,039
I mean, I felt safe
in that concrete tower.

768
00:49:16,040 --> 00:49:17,839
So, you know,

769
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:22,720
I would think they would have put safety
in front of prettiness.

770
00:49:24,240 --> 00:49:27,480
Based on how I saw Arconic operate,

771
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:32,479
I would find it very difficult to believe
that anybody didn't know

772
00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:35,800
that this was
going on that particular building.

773
00:49:38,160 --> 00:49:40,880
It would have cost
two pounds per square meter more.

774
00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:45,079
Across the whole building,
that works out to about £5,000.

775
00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:48,639
If you split it per flat,
it's about £40 per flat

776
00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:50,239
to use the safer version.

777
00:49:50,240 --> 00:49:52,759
But because there was
such a focus on saving money

778
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:55,440
and using the cheapest product,
it wasn't even considered.

779
00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:05,679
{\an8}<i>It's about £40 per flat.</i>

780
00:50:05,680 --> 00:50:09,119
The first phone call I received
was actually from a friend.

781
00:50:09,120 --> 00:50:12,000
She said, "There's a fire in the block."

782
00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:13,560
"Where is Ray?"

783
00:50:14,280 --> 00:50:16,319
<i>We have no word on the number of people</i>

784
00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:17,639
<i>who are in that building...</i>

785
00:50:17,640 --> 00:50:20,200
So I went downstairs, turned the TV on,

786
00:50:20,920 --> 00:50:24,600
and that's when I realized
what was going on.

787
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:29,080
I tried calling his phone,
and there was no response.

788
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:33,239
And all I can remember thinking
at the time was,

789
00:50:33,240 --> 00:50:36,679
"Hopefully, Ray's apartment
is not affected."

790
00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:39,000
"Hopefully, Ray will be okay."

791
00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:42,920
I made my way down to Ladbroke Grove.

792
00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:45,200
It was just a...

793
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:47,360
an inferno.

794
00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:53,440
But I honestly believed
it would be dealt with.

795
00:50:55,200 --> 00:50:56,280
Because...

796
00:50:59,960 --> 00:51:01,360
it's the United Kingdom.

797
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:08,159
{\an8}<i>With regards to residents
still in the block, their advice is,</i>

798
00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:11,279
<i>if there's anyone on the phone
to someone who's still in a flat,</i>

799
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:15,440
<i>is to please try and escape
or get out by any other means they can.</i>

800
00:51:18,080 --> 00:51:22,279
Stay Put was revoked
in the control room at 2:35,

801
00:51:22,280 --> 00:51:24,720
um, on the incident ground at 2:47am.

802
00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:30,040
By this point, there are over 100 people
still inside Grenfell Tower.

803
00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:38,080
I remember a senior officer
giving a speech to firefighters.

804
00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:40,880
It sounded like a rallying cry.

805
00:51:42,360 --> 00:51:45,559
"Listen, this is like nothing
you're ever gonna face,

806
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:48,839
but there's still savable life in there,

807
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:52,040
and we're gonna have to put you
in very dangerous situations."

808
00:51:54,640 --> 00:51:56,679
We didn't have a clue where we were.

809
00:51:56,680 --> 00:51:58,800
We were shouting out for people,

810
00:51:59,920 --> 00:52:01,560
and there was nothing coming back.

811
00:52:02,280 --> 00:52:03,839
There was flashes of torches

812
00:52:03,840 --> 00:52:05,720
as people were walking around,
running around.

813
00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:09,239
And all of a sudden,

814
00:52:09,240 --> 00:52:13,680
a firefighter appeared with... with a...
with a lady who was unconscious.

815
00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:18,639
He was on his own with her.
He was visibly... distressed.

816
00:52:18,640 --> 00:52:20,160
So we grabbed her.

817
00:52:21,640 --> 00:52:24,319
We were, like, falling all over the place
with her as well.

818
00:52:24,320 --> 00:52:26,760
It was so difficult to get your footing.

819
00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:33,920
We got her back down to the ground floor,
and we passed her to paramedic section.

820
00:52:35,720 --> 00:52:37,679
There was nothing to wait around for.

821
00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:41,760
It was a case of getting back inside
and trying to help save people.

822
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:49,879
Every time we breathed the smoke,
you're kind of breathing death.

823
00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:53,760
Some of us used to open the door
to try to see if we can escape.

824
00:52:55,600 --> 00:52:58,879
I remember my neighbor
was worried about his family,

825
00:52:58,880 --> 00:53:01,160
so he started to put sheets together.

826
00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:06,119
<i>He's made a rope from his blankets,</i>

827
00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:07,520
<i>and he's sent it down.</i>

828
00:53:08,920 --> 00:53:11,559
<i>- Oi. There's another guy there as well.
- Just been catching.</i>

829
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:13,319
<i>- Bruv.
- Just catching a dog.</i>

830
00:53:13,320 --> 00:53:16,919
He... he... he wanted to escape
using the sheets from the window.

831
00:53:16,920 --> 00:53:18,200
He actually tried.

832
00:53:20,320 --> 00:53:22,359
We're very scared,
me and my brother, Muhammed.

833
00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:24,400
Straight away, we pulled him in again.

834
00:53:26,080 --> 00:53:28,999
Kids were crying, screaming.

835
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:31,840
And I remember Zainab crying, and...

836
00:53:32,440 --> 00:53:33,719
and just, people were very...

837
00:53:33,720 --> 00:53:37,040
Running around in the apartment,
scared, not knowing what to do.

838
00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:42,160
But the hope was
that the firefighters will come back.

839
00:53:44,840 --> 00:53:49,999
I was told that the fire was so intense
on some of the other floors,

840
00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:52,000
residents had started to move up.

841
00:53:54,640 --> 00:53:57,679
Some residents rang Ray's doorbell...

842
00:53:57,680 --> 00:54:02,320
...and at that point, his flat wasn't really
consumed with a lot of smoke.

843
00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:09,040
He let quite a few people into his flat.
It was women and children.

844
00:54:10,520 --> 00:54:12,720
{\an8}Ray was registered as disabled,

845
00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:19,160
but there was no plan in place to evacuate
disabled residents of Grenfell Tower.

846
00:54:20,800 --> 00:54:25,160
He could see all that black smoke,
I think, every time he opened his door.

847
00:54:25,960 --> 00:54:29,760
But he still let them in.
He still gave them refuge.

848
00:54:34,360 --> 00:54:40,959
It's my belief that Jessica
probably accompanied the other adults

849
00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:43,040
{\an8}into Ray's apartment.

850
00:54:44,240 --> 00:54:47,840
{\an8}Jessica and my granddaughter
attended the same school.

851
00:54:48,720 --> 00:54:50,359
She knew Ray,

852
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:53,080
and she knew she'd be safe with Ray.

853
00:54:57,200 --> 00:55:00,559
I phoned LFB again to find out
what's happening with the rescue unit.

854
00:55:00,560 --> 00:55:02,880
Where's the firefighters
that are coming to rescue us?

855
00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:06,999
That time, they said, "Yeah,
I've spoken to you. You called before."

856
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:09,560
And I said, "Yeah, I've spoken to LFB
four times before."

857
00:55:24,120 --> 00:55:26,999
At some point, maybe a minute or two
into that... that call,

858
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:31,399
I kinda just looked into my bedroom,
and all of a sudden, my window was alight,

859
00:55:31,400 --> 00:55:34,000
and it just raced towards me.

860
00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:48,239
<i>- Okay, okay.</i>
- <i>Okay. All hold hands.</i>

861
00:55:48,240 --> 00:55:50,119
<i>And get as much wet clothes...</i>

862
00:55:50,120 --> 00:55:52,200
So everything was, like...

863
00:55:53,600 --> 00:55:56,159
everything was kinda in a rush. Um...

864
00:55:56,160 --> 00:56:01,480
We covered ourselves with the blanket
that my dad had put in the bathtub, and...

865
00:56:03,520 --> 00:56:04,720
I grabbed my dog.

866
00:56:09,280 --> 00:56:13,680
And we just dashed it for the stairwell.

867
00:56:16,680 --> 00:56:18,759
The conditions in the stairwell
were horrific.

868
00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:20,879
<i>Go through. Go down...</i>

869
00:56:20,880 --> 00:56:22,799
I was coughing. Gagging a lot.

870
00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:23,920
<i>Let's go now!</i>

871
00:56:32,560 --> 00:56:33,759
<i>Just listen to...</i>

872
00:56:33,760 --> 00:56:38,519
I didn't have any idea where they were.
My expectation was they're in front of me.

873
00:56:38,520 --> 00:56:39,920
<i>...on their way up.</i>

874
00:56:42,440 --> 00:56:43,959
{\an8}<i>Keep going. They're on their way up.</i>

875
00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:46,200
My dad was behind me.

876
00:56:47,040 --> 00:56:50,119
I kept hearing his voice,
like, behind me, you know.

877
00:56:50,120 --> 00:56:53,680
He kept shouting, you know,
"Go on. Just keep going. Keep going."

878
00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:56,599
<i>Just keep going, all right?</i>

879
00:56:56,600 --> 00:56:57,679
<i>Girls?</i>

880
00:56:57,680 --> 00:56:59,520
And I just remember...

881
00:57:01,600 --> 00:57:04,720
I just remember
stepping on so many bodies.

882
00:57:14,440 --> 00:57:16,520
And then it got to a point where

883
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:20,240
I couldn't hear my dad anymore behind me.

884
00:57:21,240 --> 00:57:22,840
He sounded like he was, like,

885
00:57:24,320 --> 00:57:25,959
far in front of me.

886
00:57:25,960 --> 00:57:27,800
Like, down the stairwell.

887
00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:35,080
You know, I didn't hear nobody speak
or... or say anything back to me,

888
00:57:35,920 --> 00:57:38,840
until that moment I heard Luana say,

889
00:57:40,120 --> 00:57:41,120
"Dad!"

890
00:57:46,960 --> 00:57:50,040
But at that moment,
I realized they're not in front of me.

891
00:57:50,640 --> 00:57:51,720
They were behind me.

892
00:57:52,320 --> 00:57:55,799
I just remember saying,
"I can't do it anymore."

893
00:57:55,800 --> 00:57:58,400
Like, I... I can't carry on.

894
00:58:03,560 --> 00:58:09,159
And I just remember...
placing my dog down on the stairwell,

895
00:58:09,160 --> 00:58:10,440
'cause I couldn't cope.

896
00:58:13,320 --> 00:58:17,320
That was it.
That's... all that I can remember, 'cause...

897
00:58:19,640 --> 00:58:21,080
apparently I had collapsed.

898
00:58:22,800 --> 00:58:24,760
Everything just went pitch-black.

899
00:58:25,840 --> 00:58:28,400
{\an8}<i>I need to look for 'em.</i>

900
00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:47,520
<i>Oh my God.</i>

901
00:58:49,000 --> 00:58:51,520
<i>They've allowed people to die,
for fuck's sake.</i>

902
00:58:55,960 --> 00:58:58,520
Suddenly, our front door was opened.

903
00:59:00,840 --> 00:59:04,640
So the first thing I saw
is, like, a firefighter.

904
00:59:05,360 --> 00:59:09,640
And the second thing I saw is
our neighbor and his family just leaving.

905
00:59:10,840 --> 00:59:14,439
And then I... I remember
someone pulling me from my neck

906
00:59:14,440 --> 00:59:16,960
or from my T-shirt, taking me out.

907
00:59:18,760 --> 00:59:21,360
I could feel at that time the stair.

908
00:59:22,120 --> 00:59:24,720
Someone was pushing me,
telling me to move again.

909
00:59:25,600 --> 00:59:28,359
But I didn't want to move,
because I was looking for my brother

910
00:59:28,360 --> 00:59:31,440
and for... for everyone else,
and I couldn't see nothing.

911
00:59:32,760 --> 00:59:35,720
On the third floor,
I started to see a light again.

912
00:59:38,760 --> 00:59:42,920
The first thing I did is to look around me
to see, like, "Where's my brother?"

913
00:59:43,440 --> 00:59:44,520
And I couldn't see him.

914
00:59:45,440 --> 00:59:48,280
I just called him.
I was like, "Where are you, Mohammad?"

915
00:59:48,800 --> 00:59:50,960
He was like, "Omar, where are you?"

916
00:59:52,360 --> 00:59:55,759
"Mohammad, like, they came to us.
They take me out."

917
00:59:55,760 --> 00:59:58,160
"So I thought
they are taking you as well."

918
00:59:59,440 --> 01:00:02,879
He was like, "No, I couldn't see anyone.
No one came to us."

919
01:00:02,880 --> 01:00:06,599
"And I'm still here with Zainab, her son."

920
01:00:06,600 --> 01:00:09,280
I said, like, "All of you still there?"
He said, "Yes."

921
01:00:11,160 --> 01:00:13,239
I went straight to the firefighters,
I told them, like,

922
01:00:13,240 --> 01:00:15,959
"My brother, Zainab,
they're all still there."

923
01:00:15,960 --> 01:00:19,720
"Please, are you going upstairs?"
Everyone's telling me, like "Yes, yes."

924
01:00:25,040 --> 01:00:27,880
I walked back down
to the base of the tower.

925
01:00:28,840 --> 01:00:30,719
And there's a guy there,
and he's on the phone.

926
01:00:30,720 --> 01:00:32,840
And he's shouting. He's very animated.

927
01:00:33,360 --> 01:00:35,639
"My girl's in there!
My girl's in there," he says.

928
01:00:35,640 --> 01:00:38,200
"My girl's in there!
I'm on the phone to her now!"

929
01:00:40,240 --> 01:00:43,200
I took the phone off him,
and I said, "Hi, my name's Chris."

930
01:00:43,880 --> 01:00:47,560
She tells me, "I'm on the 14th floor,
and I'm with my two-year-old son."

931
01:00:48,080 --> 01:00:50,879
"My name's Zainab.
My name's Zainab, and my son's Jeremiah."

932
01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:52,040
I said, "Okay."

933
01:00:54,120 --> 01:00:55,239
{\an8}"We're coming to get you."

934
01:00:55,240 --> 01:00:57,600
{\an8}"You can't get out that building.
We will come and get you."

935
01:00:58,920 --> 01:01:00,520
{\an8}I can hear Jeremiah crying.

936
01:01:04,760 --> 01:01:06,840
I go over to the Fire Survival Guidance.

937
01:01:08,080 --> 01:01:11,360
And I said, "Look, the 14th floor?" Um...

938
01:01:13,360 --> 01:01:14,880
And he says to me, "At the moment...

939
01:01:15,840 --> 01:01:17,800
at the moment, we can't go past the 12th."

940
01:01:19,800 --> 01:01:24,120
I was on the phone to Zainab
for about 25, 30 minutes.

941
01:01:25,760 --> 01:01:27,640
Jeremiah, he's not crying anymore.

942
01:01:30,240 --> 01:01:31,880
There was a point when...

943
01:01:34,840 --> 01:01:37,720
she told me that, um,

944
01:01:39,000 --> 01:01:40,200
Jeremiah's dead.

945
01:01:41,720 --> 01:01:43,759
There was a point when she told me,
"Jeremiah's dead."

946
01:01:43,760 --> 01:01:46,400
"I don't wanna be here no more.
I wanna be with him, with my boy."

947
01:01:48,160 --> 01:01:50,520
I said, "Come on, Zainab.
You stay with me, girl."

948
01:01:52,280 --> 01:01:55,959
"There's people that love you,
that are waiting for you, you know?"

949
01:01:55,960 --> 01:01:58,279
"You need to get out of this building.
We're co..."

950
01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:00,240
I'm still telling her,
"We're coming to get you."

951
01:02:02,480 --> 01:02:04,000
I thought I heard her scream.

952
01:02:05,160 --> 01:02:06,640
I thought I heard her scream.

953
01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:09,280
Just completely out of nowhere.

954
01:02:12,240 --> 01:02:13,680
And then silence.

955
01:02:15,080 --> 01:02:17,440
I kept the phone on
for about five minutes more,

956
01:02:18,400 --> 01:02:19,400
just in case.

957
01:02:23,280 --> 01:02:27,760
I was on the phone with my brother.
He's praying and... and speaking to me.

958
01:02:29,640 --> 01:02:32,520
The last conversation we had,
uh, was like,

959
01:02:33,600 --> 01:02:35,399
"Omar, I'm... I'm... I'm dying."

960
01:02:35,400 --> 01:02:37,280
"I'm dying here. That's it."

961
01:02:41,840 --> 01:02:46,760
"I could see Zainab dying
in front of my face, and her son,

962
01:02:48,000 --> 01:02:49,280
and Denis as well."

963
01:02:52,160 --> 01:02:54,240
"And I'm dying, Omar."

964
01:03:02,360 --> 01:03:04,840
My brother was kind of saying bye to me.

965
01:03:15,880 --> 01:03:18,440
{\an8}<i>Come down from the...</i>

966
01:03:29,520 --> 01:03:32,119
At that moment, I figured out that Luana,

967
01:03:32,120 --> 01:03:34,080
um, she'd passed out.

968
01:03:34,920 --> 01:03:39,400
I looked down in-between the rails
on the stairwell, and I could see a light.

969
01:03:40,120 --> 01:03:41,800
Very faint, but I could see a light.

970
01:03:42,960 --> 01:03:45,359
And I kinda thought,
"God, that must be a firefighter."

971
01:03:45,360 --> 01:03:49,400
I quickly ran down, and I shouted,
I said, "My daughter's upstairs."

972
01:03:55,000 --> 01:03:56,280
<i>Gotta get them out.</i>

973
01:03:56,920 --> 01:03:58,959
I've gone to go up with them,

974
01:03:58,960 --> 01:04:02,319
and then I've had another firefighter
grab me from behind.

975
01:04:02,320 --> 01:04:04,520
They went, "No, you need to go.
Keep going down."

976
01:04:06,160 --> 01:04:08,720
I saw Luana being carried out,

977
01:04:10,520 --> 01:04:11,480
but...

978
01:04:12,520 --> 01:04:14,679
I didn't know where... where my wife was.

979
01:04:14,680 --> 01:04:16,600
Didn't know where Megan was.

980
01:04:20,040 --> 01:04:22,440
I know Helen and Lulya
were able to get out.

981
01:04:24,000 --> 01:04:25,760
They handed me over to the police.

982
01:04:26,280 --> 01:04:29,839
They said, "No, can't promise anything,
but there's a pregnant woman up there."

983
01:04:29,840 --> 01:04:31,360
"She's with another kid."

984
01:04:31,840 --> 01:04:34,039
Without even seeing her, I kind of went...

985
01:04:34,040 --> 01:04:36,239
Like, relieved.

986
01:04:36,240 --> 01:04:37,399
Um...

987
01:04:37,400 --> 01:04:42,199
Then I quickly turned and saw, um,
Andreia was sitting... sitting by the tree,

988
01:04:42,200 --> 01:04:44,080
and Megan was... was next to her.

989
01:04:46,920 --> 01:04:49,759
Andreia asked, "Where's Luana?"
Of course, I knew where Luana was.

990
01:04:49,760 --> 01:04:51,760
She was to our side.

991
01:04:52,920 --> 01:04:53,800
Um...

992
01:04:56,000 --> 01:04:57,680
They were resuscitating her.

993
01:05:01,200 --> 01:05:04,440
And then we got put in one ambulance,
all together.

994
01:05:07,240 --> 01:05:11,239
Next thing I know, I woke up,
and I was in the ambulance...

995
01:05:11,240 --> 01:05:13,760
...and I was the only one on the bed.

996
01:05:16,000 --> 01:05:19,599
You know, I just kept thinking,
you know, "Why am I on this bed?"

997
01:05:19,600 --> 01:05:24,199
Like, "I'm not the priority here.
If anyone's the priority..."

998
01:05:24,200 --> 01:05:25,240
"...it's my mum."

999
01:05:27,360 --> 01:05:29,800
Because, obviously,
she was pregnant at the time.

1000
01:05:34,520 --> 01:05:37,760
And then I just... I fell back asleep again.

1001
01:05:41,400 --> 01:05:42,440
And, yeah.

1002
01:05:49,800 --> 01:05:52,519
<i>Police confirmed
a number of people have been injured,</i>

1003
01:05:52,520 --> 01:05:54,520
<i>and an evacuation is continuing.</i>

1004
01:05:56,640 --> 01:06:00,000
<i>So far, 12 people have died.
More than 70 others are injured.</i>

1005
01:06:03,920 --> 01:06:07,959
<i>We've now been here
for five-and-a-half, nearly six hours,</i>

1006
01:06:07,960 --> 01:06:10,279
<i>and not a single policeman,</i>

1007
01:06:10,280 --> 01:06:13,239
<i>not a single representative
from our landlord</i>

1008
01:06:13,240 --> 01:06:15,759
{\an8}<i>or from the council has turned up
to speak to us.</i>

1009
01:06:15,760 --> 01:06:20,360
{\an8}<i>There are people here who don't know
whether their relatives are alive or dead.</i>

1010
01:06:22,080 --> 01:06:24,000
<i>621, where are you?</i>

1011
01:06:32,000 --> 01:06:35,600
If we get all the missing people up
on the same window...

1012
01:06:36,280 --> 01:06:38,559
I came down to Ladbroke Grove,

1013
01:06:38,560 --> 01:06:42,240
I think, the, um, evening of the 14th.

1014
01:06:42,840 --> 01:06:45,440
And we had photographs,
and we were putting them up.

1015
01:06:47,440 --> 01:06:49,439
It was desperation,

1016
01:06:49,440 --> 01:06:52,839
because there was no information
on where to go

1017
01:06:52,840 --> 01:06:57,960
to try and find your brother, your sister,
your mother, your cousin, whoever.

1018
01:06:59,640 --> 01:07:01,000
Where are the children?

1019
01:07:08,280 --> 01:07:10,999
A week on since the Grenfell Tower fire

1020
01:07:11,000 --> 01:07:15,159
and many residents are still complaining
of a lack of support from the authorities.

1021
01:07:15,160 --> 01:07:17,959
Many are still sleeping
in the local sports center,

1022
01:07:17,960 --> 01:07:20,800
and some, reportedly, even in their cars.

1023
01:07:29,800 --> 01:07:32,639
We haven't met anyone from the council
who's actually come here.

1024
01:07:32,640 --> 01:07:36,279
We want someone
to actually tell the families

1025
01:07:36,280 --> 01:07:39,119
what has happened to their loved ones
that have gone missing.

1026
01:07:39,120 --> 01:07:41,239
Out! Out! Out!

1027
01:07:41,240 --> 01:07:44,119
I think immediately
there was a desire to see justice done.

1028
01:07:44,120 --> 01:07:45,199
Out! Out!

1029
01:07:45,200 --> 01:07:48,839
I think it was obvious to the people
who lived in Grenfell Tower

1030
01:07:48,840 --> 01:07:52,519
and had lost relatives
that... there was responsibility.

1031
01:07:52,520 --> 01:07:53,679
This wasn't an accident.

1032
01:07:53,680 --> 01:07:55,399
- What do we want?
- Justice!

1033
01:07:55,400 --> 01:07:57,199
- When do we want it?
- Now!

1034
01:07:57,200 --> 01:07:58,319
We want answers!

1035
01:07:58,320 --> 01:08:03,519
What people needed was clarity
from the local authority and support.

1036
01:08:03,520 --> 01:08:07,999
The basic human rights
that we all take for granted every day.

1037
01:08:08,000 --> 01:08:10,199
Food, shelter, clothing.

1038
01:08:10,200 --> 01:08:13,119
People sitting out there
with no food, no houses, the lot.

1039
01:08:13,120 --> 01:08:14,839
People walking around lost in the streets,

1040
01:08:14,840 --> 01:08:16,719
sticking their kids' pictures
to their top.

1041
01:08:16,720 --> 01:08:18,000
No one's out here helping.

1042
01:08:19,200 --> 01:08:21,319
<i>Many are livid
at the government's response</i>

1043
01:08:21,320 --> 01:08:22,480
<i>to the tragedy.</i>

1044
01:08:24,280 --> 01:08:28,239
<i>The convoy sped past,
carrying the prime minister.</i>

1045
01:08:28,240 --> 01:08:32,760
<i>Theresa May spoke to emergency workers,
but made no public appearance.</i>

1046
01:08:33,480 --> 01:08:36,719
Theresa May steps down here
and don't come and see none of us.

1047
01:08:36,720 --> 01:08:38,199
May must go!

1048
01:08:38,200 --> 01:08:40,680
Why didn't you
meet the community straightaway?

1049
01:08:41,760 --> 01:08:43,839
My decision not to go immediately

1050
01:08:43,840 --> 01:08:45,479
to meet members of the community

1051
01:08:45,480 --> 01:08:47,959
was because, I always felt,
had been to make sure

1052
01:08:47,960 --> 01:08:51,919
that those emergency services
had the resources that they needed,

1053
01:08:51,920 --> 01:08:54,359
had everything they needed
to do their job.

1054
01:08:54,360 --> 01:08:59,439
{\an8}I realize now that, actually,
one of the issues for the community

1055
01:08:59,440 --> 01:09:01,399
and the survivors of Grenfell Tower

1056
01:09:01,400 --> 01:09:04,839
was the way in which authority
had failed to listen to them.

1057
01:09:04,840 --> 01:09:07,919
And I merely exacerbated that in... in...

1058
01:09:07,920 --> 01:09:09,880
by not going to see them first off.

1059
01:09:12,360 --> 01:09:14,039
{\an8}<i>What began here in London today</i>

1060
01:09:14,040 --> 01:09:17,239
{\an8}<i>is a public inquiry
into the Grenfell tragedy</i>

1061
01:09:17,240 --> 01:09:19,560
<i>that claimed 72 lives.</i>

1062
01:09:22,080 --> 01:09:24,559
I called the public inquiry so quickly

1063
01:09:24,560 --> 01:09:28,759
because I thought it was important,
given the scale of this tragedy,

1064
01:09:28,760 --> 01:09:33,440
it was important that we really
dug into what had happened.

1065
01:09:36,600 --> 01:09:41,760
My role as lead counsel
to the inquiry was to be the public.

1066
01:09:42,920 --> 01:09:47,119
{\an8}A curious member of the public
who sees there's been a terrible fire

1067
01:09:47,120 --> 01:09:51,280
{\an8}and wants to know what happened
and why it happened.

1068
01:09:52,440 --> 01:09:55,919
<i>The public inquiry will look
at the events of the night itself,</i>

1069
01:09:55,920 --> 01:09:58,840
<i>including the response
of the emergency services.</i>

1070
01:10:00,440 --> 01:10:04,439
I do solemnly, sincerely, and truly...

1071
01:10:04,440 --> 01:10:08,159
The problem with the inquiry
was the emotional difficulty

1072
01:10:08,160 --> 01:10:11,079
and what one might call
the forensic difficulty.

1073
01:10:11,080 --> 01:10:11,999
The whole truth.

1074
01:10:12,000 --> 01:10:13,879
- ...truth.
- ...the whole truth.

1075
01:10:13,880 --> 01:10:16,639
- ...and nothing but the truth.
- ...and nothing but the truth.

1076
01:10:16,640 --> 01:10:19,640
The emotional difficulty one
came very early on

1077
01:10:20,280 --> 01:10:23,319
when I examined
the early arrival firefighters

1078
01:10:23,320 --> 01:10:25,280
all about what happened on the night.

1079
01:10:27,480 --> 01:10:29,160
I decided to go up

1080
01:10:30,160 --> 01:10:33,679
and, uh, try and get to the 20th floor
to get her little sister.

1081
01:10:33,680 --> 01:10:34,919
There is some context here

1082
01:10:34,920 --> 01:10:37,679
which I just need to show you
based on your statement.

1083
01:10:37,680 --> 01:10:40,639
Could you please be shown
page seven of your statement?

1084
01:10:40,640 --> 01:10:44,519
"I found what I thought was Flat 176,
but had to use my torch

1085
01:10:44,520 --> 01:10:47,279
and put my face
right up close to the door."

1086
01:10:47,280 --> 01:10:51,319
"I moved on to the next door
and saw that it was 175."

1087
01:10:51,320 --> 01:10:54,919
Did you... uh... knock on the door

1088
01:10:54,920 --> 01:10:59,600
or shout to anybody
who might be inside Flat 175?

1089
01:11:05,800 --> 01:11:08,160
- Um, can I just say...
- Yes, of course.

1090
01:11:10,720 --> 01:11:15,720
Um... to the... to the family
of the people in Flat 175, I'm...

1091
01:11:16,440 --> 01:11:19,199
I was... I was, um<i>...</i>
looking for another girl,

1092
01:11:19,200 --> 01:11:22,000
and I didn't know
there was anyone in there.

1093
01:11:22,760 --> 01:11:26,240
- That's... that's all right.
- Thanks. Thank you.

1094
01:11:28,600 --> 01:11:30,559
There was a lot of failure,

1095
01:11:30,560 --> 01:11:32,999
um, at an institutional level
from London Fire Brigade.

1096
01:11:33,000 --> 01:11:36,599
There was failure, um<i>...</i>
on the ground as well, you know.

1097
01:11:36,600 --> 01:11:38,999
This operation didn't go well. Um<i>...</i>

1098
01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:42,639
But I think you've got to remember,
as well, the... the<i>...</i>

1099
01:11:42,640 --> 01:11:49,359
the pain that must come from being the one
who is tasked with saving people,

1100
01:11:49,360 --> 01:11:50,680
but not being able to.

1101
01:11:51,240 --> 01:11:53,119
That's a really hard thing.

1102
01:11:53,120 --> 01:11:56,400
Just that alone,
a really hard thing to have to live with.

1103
01:11:58,520 --> 01:12:00,799
Welcome to today's hearing,

1104
01:12:00,800 --> 01:12:04,159
at which we're going to hear evidence
from the commissioner.

1105
01:12:04,160 --> 01:12:06,119
I swear by Almighty God...

1106
01:12:06,120 --> 01:12:08,279
{\an8}Before the inquiry,
one of the questions I had

1107
01:12:08,280 --> 01:12:10,400
{\an8}about the London Fire Brigade was

1108
01:12:11,160 --> 01:12:13,399
{\an8}why didn't <i>they</i> learn the lessons
from Lakanal House?

1109
01:12:13,400 --> 01:12:14,680
...and nothing but the truth.

1110
01:12:16,400 --> 01:12:20,360
I learned that there was warnings
to the London Fire Brigade.

1111
01:12:21,800 --> 01:12:26,000
We knew that buildings had cladding.
We had no training on cladding fires.

1112
01:12:27,160 --> 01:12:28,839
And from all the training I've had,

1113
01:12:28,840 --> 01:12:34,080
we still, um<i>...</i> relied totally
on that Stay Put policy up until Grenfell.

1114
01:12:35,080 --> 01:12:38,480
And we... didn't really have a plan B.

1115
01:12:40,200 --> 01:12:45,559
Now, this is a...
um, a slideshow produced by the LFB.

1116
01:12:45,560 --> 01:12:48,599
There were a lot of revelations
about the London Fire Brigade

1117
01:12:48,600 --> 01:12:52,840
at the Grenfell Tower inquiry, um,
and particularly about how much they knew.

1118
01:12:53,360 --> 01:12:57,839
And I think the most startling example
of that was a PowerPoint presentation

1119
01:12:57,840 --> 01:13:01,440
which went into a lot of detail
about the risks of cladding fires.

1120
01:13:02,040 --> 01:13:05,519
Did you see this slideshow
at the time it was produced?

1121
01:13:05,520 --> 01:13:06,560
No.

1122
01:13:07,360 --> 01:13:10,359
Can you explain why this presentation
was kept to a limited coterie

1123
01:13:10,360 --> 01:13:13,679
of LFB specialists so that even <i>you</i>
didn't see it, Commissioner?

1124
01:13:13,680 --> 01:13:14,760
No, I've no idea.

1125
01:13:16,280 --> 01:13:18,239
This key document had not been seen

1126
01:13:18,240 --> 01:13:20,240
by any of the frontline firefighters.

1127
01:13:21,000 --> 01:13:24,200
Suddenly, people realized
that this was an institutional problem.

1128
01:13:25,080 --> 01:13:27,639
This is not going to be the case
of individual firefighters

1129
01:13:27,640 --> 01:13:29,000
making mistakes on the night.

1130
01:13:31,120 --> 01:13:36,240
If we had turned up to that fire
and had the knowledge to recognize,

1131
01:13:36,920 --> 01:13:39,639
"That is a cladding fire.
We can't stop that."

1132
01:13:39,640 --> 01:13:43,280
"So let's not try,
and let's evacuate the building,"

1133
01:13:44,720 --> 01:13:48,560
if we had that knowledge<i>...</i>
things could've looked a lot different.

1134
01:13:49,720 --> 01:13:55,240
People probably still would have died.
Would as many have died? I don't know.

1135
01:14:01,240 --> 01:14:02,319
From an early stage,

1136
01:14:02,320 --> 01:14:05,199
some of the witnesses
that I was most keen to see

1137
01:14:05,200 --> 01:14:07,000
were those who worked for Arconic<i>...</i>

1138
01:14:08,920 --> 01:14:12,199
who had made the decision
to keep this product on the market,

1139
01:14:12,200 --> 01:14:14,079
despite the testing, despite the warnings.

1140
01:14:14,080 --> 01:14:17,320
I wanted to see them asked,
"Why did you do this?"

1141
01:14:18,800 --> 01:14:22,119
<i>Arconic is a huge global American company,</i>

1142
01:14:22,120 --> 01:14:25,480
<i>but three of its employees
are refusing to give evidence.</i>

1143
01:14:26,480 --> 01:14:28,839
I think we've seen
that the Arconic witnesses

1144
01:14:28,840 --> 01:14:33,519
that have chosen not to appear
at the public inquiry are, in my opinion,

1145
01:14:33,520 --> 01:14:35,480
nothing better than gutless cowards.

1146
01:14:36,600 --> 01:14:41,759
A UK public inquiry has the power
to compel UK citizens to attend,

1147
01:14:41,760 --> 01:14:45,760
but it has no power to do that
for non-UK citizens.

1148
01:14:46,840 --> 01:14:49,199
We didn't hear from people
like Claude Wehrle,

1149
01:14:49,200 --> 01:14:52,600
who did and do have
a lot of questions to answer.

1150
01:14:53,920 --> 01:14:58,559
But there were emails that got released
in a kind of huge package of emails

1151
01:14:58,560 --> 01:15:00,199
that came from Arconic,

1152
01:15:00,200 --> 01:15:04,039
which included Claude Wehrle
using a phrase to the effect of,

1153
01:15:04,040 --> 01:15:08,400
"Oh my Lord. Don't release
that testing information to the client."

1154
01:15:10,760 --> 01:15:14,280
<i>- Oh my gosh!
- How will someone help them?</i>

1155
01:15:14,920 --> 01:15:17,399
Senior people in the company telling staff

1156
01:15:17,400 --> 01:15:22,160
to keep the true fire performance
of the product very confidential.

1157
01:15:23,240 --> 01:15:26,360
- <i>There's babies in that block!</i>
- <i>Where are the people?</i>

1158
01:15:26,960 --> 01:15:30,040
The emails sent by Claude Wehrle
saying, "We are not clean."

1159
01:15:31,680 --> 01:15:34,000
<i>Get out of the tower!</i>

1160
01:15:34,640 --> 01:15:37,720
What was being revealed
was just this huge corporate scandal.

1161
01:15:39,520 --> 01:15:43,719
They knew that if this information
made it into the public domain,

1162
01:15:43,720 --> 01:15:45,800
people wouldn't buy their product anymore.

1163
01:15:53,600 --> 01:15:56,639
While investigating this, we discovered
that during the Grenfell deal,

1164
01:15:56,640 --> 01:16:00,280
a senior executive requested
a fire safety report on cladding products.

1165
01:16:01,760 --> 01:16:05,400
She learned that PE cladding was
unsuitable for buildings over 12 meters,

1166
01:16:06,440 --> 01:16:09,680
and that the product even carried
a risk of flaming droplets in a fire.

1167
01:16:11,840 --> 01:16:12,879
She was clearly told,

1168
01:16:12,880 --> 01:16:15,640
"The higher the building,
the stronger the fire resistance must be."

1169
01:16:18,080 --> 01:16:20,759
She was informed the company had sold
thousands of square meters of PE

1170
01:16:20,760 --> 01:16:23,959
for Grenfell Tower, earning 115,000 euros.

1171
01:16:23,960 --> 01:16:26,160
But there were no questions around safety.

1172
01:16:28,800 --> 01:16:31,880
This is the dark heart of,

1173
01:16:32,640 --> 01:16:36,199
sort of, corporate multinational culture,

1174
01:16:36,200 --> 01:16:42,199
you know,
where profit becomes so important

1175
01:16:42,200 --> 01:16:44,920
that everything else is forgotten.

1176
01:16:46,720 --> 01:16:49,440
<i>They're the companies behind Grenfell.</i>

1177
01:16:50,360 --> 01:16:51,520
<i>Arconic.</i>

1178
01:16:52,320 --> 01:16:55,200
<i>Celotex,
makers of the flammable insulation.</i>

1179
01:16:56,360 --> 01:16:59,519
<i>Together with another firm, Kingspan.</i>

1180
01:16:59,520 --> 01:17:03,719
<i>All these manufacturers
heavily criticized for their materials</i>

1181
01:17:03,720 --> 01:17:06,680
<i>used on the construction
of Grenfell Tower.</i>

1182
01:17:07,760 --> 01:17:11,239
So in the inquiry,
I was asked to be shadow expert

1183
01:17:11,240 --> 01:17:13,239
for the victims and bereaved.

1184
01:17:13,240 --> 01:17:15,279
My role was to help the lawyers.

1185
01:17:15,280 --> 01:17:18,039
And I was called to go through
the documents in an intense process.

1186
01:17:18,040 --> 01:17:23,720
<i>It emerged that Kingspan
tested a product called K15 back in 2005.</i>

1187
01:17:24,320 --> 01:17:28,760
<i>But the product it subsequently sold
on the market was not the same.</i>

1188
01:17:29,640 --> 01:17:31,199
You have Arconic doing this,

1189
01:17:31,200 --> 01:17:33,679
you have Celotex doing that,
and you have Kingspan doing that.

1190
01:17:33,680 --> 01:17:35,319
Show me a good example, no?

1191
01:17:35,320 --> 01:17:38,239
Show me a good person
doing the right decision,

1192
01:17:38,240 --> 01:17:40,319
appearing as the hero of the story.

1193
01:17:40,320 --> 01:17:42,159
There is no hero in the story.

1194
01:17:42,160 --> 01:17:46,319
The overwhelming cause
of the rapid fire spread across the tower

1195
01:17:46,320 --> 01:17:49,480
was the presence of the PE ACM cladding.

1196
01:17:50,080 --> 01:17:52,639
I thought, "Gosh.
Everyone is blaming each other."

1197
01:17:52,640 --> 01:17:56,719
The external fire was driven,
to an overwhelming extent,

1198
01:17:56,720 --> 01:18:01,359
by Arconic's polyethylene-cored
Reynobond ACM cladding panels.

1199
01:18:01,360 --> 01:18:05,279
If all these people are right,
then no one was to blame.

1200
01:18:05,280 --> 01:18:06,639
And that's the problem.

1201
01:18:06,640 --> 01:18:09,560
The conduct of Celotex and Kingspan

1202
01:18:10,160 --> 01:18:11,839
in assuring the market

1203
01:18:11,840 --> 01:18:14,519
that their products
could be used at height

1204
01:18:14,520 --> 01:18:19,080
was the critical causative failure
in the case of the Grenfell fire.

1205
01:18:19,640 --> 01:18:23,879
I would not put all of the blame
on any one company or any one individual.

1206
01:18:23,880 --> 01:18:26,239
Uh, it's... it's a systemic problem.

1207
01:18:26,240 --> 01:18:29,120
Why wasn't there one person
who stood up and said,

1208
01:18:29,880 --> 01:18:30,920
"We don't do this"?

1209
01:18:31,600 --> 01:18:33,280
You know, "This is not who we are."

1210
01:18:35,280 --> 01:18:37,519
I think the inquiry revealed

1211
01:18:37,520 --> 01:18:41,839
that public safety was not as interesting

1212
01:18:41,840 --> 01:18:46,360
as the individual pursuit
of private profit.

1213
01:18:47,240 --> 01:18:48,799
My question was,

1214
01:18:48,800 --> 01:18:51,999
is it right that the TMO was looking

1215
01:18:52,000 --> 01:18:54,599
for the cheapest cladding it could get

1216
01:18:54,600 --> 01:18:57,119
in order to reduce the overall budget?

1217
01:18:57,120 --> 01:18:58,719
{\an8}We weren't looking for the cheapest.

1218
01:18:58,720 --> 01:19:01,639
{\an8}We were looking for something
that would achieve planning permission.

1219
01:19:01,640 --> 01:19:04,959
It's certainly true
that the relationship between the...

1220
01:19:04,960 --> 01:19:07,159
the residents of Grenfell Tower

1221
01:19:07,160 --> 01:19:08,959
and the TMO was not a good one.

1222
01:19:08,960 --> 01:19:12,159
This is a report
of an investigation report

1223
01:19:12,160 --> 01:19:17,120
on long-standing complaints
of the Kensington and Chelsea TMO.

1224
01:19:17,720 --> 01:19:20,279
{\an8}"There are a number of tenants,
leaseholders, and freeholders

1225
01:19:20,280 --> 01:19:23,959
{\an8}who feel aggrieved that their problems
have not been resolved by the TMO,

1226
01:19:23,960 --> 01:19:26,040
{\an8}despite several years of complaining."

1227
01:19:26,600 --> 01:19:29,319
{\an8}Is this a document
that you've ever seen before?

1228
01:19:29,320 --> 01:19:32,519
{\an8}I don't remember it being sent to me.

1229
01:19:32,520 --> 01:19:33,839
{\an8}And if it was sent to me,

1230
01:19:33,840 --> 01:19:37,160
{\an8}I don't remember,
um, reading it in any detail.

1231
01:19:38,480 --> 01:19:42,279
You could see
an inability to read the situation.

1232
01:19:42,280 --> 01:19:43,719
A kind of numbness,

1233
01:19:43,720 --> 01:19:45,520
a blindness evolved.

1234
01:19:46,320 --> 01:19:53,120
I want to ask you about a complaint now
by Mr. Daffarn about fire safety.

1235
01:19:54,440 --> 01:19:57,799
We wrote this blog in, uh, November 2016.

1236
01:19:57,800 --> 01:19:59,960
"KCTMO: Playing with Fire."

1237
01:20:00,600 --> 01:20:02,999
"It is a truly terrifying thought

1238
01:20:03,000 --> 01:20:05,679
but the Grenfell Action Group
firmly believe

1239
01:20:05,680 --> 01:20:08,559
that only a catastrophic event

1240
01:20:08,560 --> 01:20:10,959
that results in serious loss of life

1241
01:20:10,960 --> 01:20:13,399
will shine a light on the practices

1242
01:20:13,400 --> 01:20:18,080
that characterize this malign governance
of this non-functioning organization."

1243
01:20:20,880 --> 01:20:23,400
Yeah, and we wrote that
six months before the fire.

1244
01:20:23,960 --> 01:20:27,039
And your response is on page one.

1245
01:20:27,040 --> 01:20:29,279
"I think Mr. Daffarn's blog
is scaremongering

1246
01:20:29,280 --> 01:20:31,360
and could be
quite frightening to residents."

1247
01:20:33,120 --> 01:20:36,359
We found out that our blog,
the Grenfell Action Group blog,

1248
01:20:36,360 --> 01:20:41,199
was being blocked on both the council
and the KCTMO's servers

1249
01:20:41,200 --> 01:20:43,999
so that staff couldn't see
what we were writing.

1250
01:20:44,000 --> 01:20:47,159
I did ask the head of IT
to remove the block.

1251
01:20:47,160 --> 01:20:48,320
I felt it was unhelpful.

1252
01:20:51,000 --> 01:20:53,479
Members of the community
were people to be managed,

1253
01:20:53,480 --> 01:20:55,320
rather than individuals with homes.

1254
01:20:56,720 --> 01:20:59,839
And I can well imagine
that many of them must have thought,

1255
01:20:59,840 --> 01:21:00,999
"What was the point?"

1256
01:21:01,000 --> 01:21:03,120
"What was it all for?"

1257
01:21:08,360 --> 01:21:10,759
When the inquiry first started,

1258
01:21:10,760 --> 01:21:13,519
I'd been very frustrated, personally,

1259
01:21:13,520 --> 01:21:18,400
by the government's refusal
to answer any real questions about this.

1260
01:21:19,800 --> 01:21:21,560
<i>The inquiry called Brian Martin.</i>

1261
01:21:22,160 --> 01:21:25,159
<i>He was the civil servant
responsible for fire safety</i>

1262
01:21:25,160 --> 01:21:27,760
<i>for almost 20 years before Grenfell.</i>

1263
01:21:28,840 --> 01:21:31,679
"I put to him, 'If it happened
in the middle of the night,

1264
01:21:31,680 --> 01:21:32,879
the death toll was likely..."

1265
01:21:32,880 --> 01:21:34,719
"...<i>to be ten to 12 times</i>

1266
01:21:34,720 --> 01:21:37,360
{\an8}<i>the six people who died
in the Lakanal House fire.'"</i>

1267
01:21:37,960 --> 01:21:39,759
{\an8}<i>"Brian Martin's reply to me was,</i>

1268
01:21:39,760 --> 01:21:42,120
{\an8}<i>'Where's the evidence?
Show me the bodies.'"</i>

1269
01:21:44,000 --> 01:21:47,319
<i>Did you say to him, "Where's the evidence?
Show me the bodies"?</i>

1270
01:21:47,320 --> 01:21:48,759
<i>I wouldn't have said that.</i>

1271
01:21:48,760 --> 01:21:53,999
Brian Martin could have taken
a more decisive stance on fire safety,

1272
01:21:54,000 --> 01:21:56,999
especially after the Lakanal House fire.

1273
01:21:57,000 --> 01:21:59,599
<i>Mr. Martin, we're now going to go
to the Rule 43 recommendations</i>

1274
01:21:59,600 --> 01:22:02,439
<i>that the coroner sent,
making recommendations</i>...

1275
01:22:02,440 --> 01:22:07,920
But he perhaps
took a more, um, passive approach.

1276
01:22:09,040 --> 01:22:10,079
<i>The private comment</i>

1277
01:22:10,080 --> 01:22:12,519
that you only have a duty
to respond to the coroner,

1278
01:22:12,520 --> 01:22:13,559
not kiss her backside,

1279
01:22:13,560 --> 01:22:16,999
discloses your attitude
to the coroner's recommendations,

1280
01:22:17,000 --> 01:22:20,720
which would not tend to indicate
that they were being taken seriously.

1281
01:22:21,560 --> 01:22:23,319
- Um...
- Do you agree?

1282
01:22:23,320 --> 01:22:25,080
Clearly, it's... it's an informal comment.

1283
01:22:27,720 --> 01:22:31,160
We tried, and we couldn't...
we couldn't effect change quicker.

1284
01:22:32,640 --> 01:22:36,319
For me personally, feeling like
I couldn't do enough beforehand

1285
01:22:36,320 --> 01:22:38,040
to prevent such a tragedy,

1286
01:22:38,680 --> 01:22:41,760
yeah, it's something
that I... I... I've been living with.

1287
01:22:42,960 --> 01:22:45,480
They didn't want to listen at the time.

1288
01:22:46,920 --> 01:22:49,959
<i>Over the last few months,
I've been looking through the evidence.</i>

1289
01:22:49,960 --> 01:22:51,079
Um...

1290
01:22:51,080 --> 01:22:54,319
It became clear to me
that there were a number of occasions

1291
01:22:54,320 --> 01:22:58,719
<i>where I could have potentially
prevented this happening.</i>

1292
01:22:58,720 --> 01:23:02,719
<i>As a result of that, I ended up
being the single point of failure</i>

1293
01:23:02,720 --> 01:23:04,079
<i>in the department.</i>

1294
01:23:04,080 --> 01:23:05,440
That's... that's...

1295
01:23:06,640 --> 01:23:09,039
why I think we failed
to stop this happening.

1296
01:23:09,040 --> 01:23:11,320
For that's something I'm bitterly sorry.

1297
01:23:13,760 --> 01:23:15,399
Do you agree with Brian Martin

1298
01:23:15,400 --> 01:23:17,760
calling himself
"the single point of failure"?

1299
01:23:18,960 --> 01:23:20,519
Hmm. Interesting.

1300
01:23:20,520 --> 01:23:22,080
Um, not necessarily.

1301
01:23:24,760 --> 01:23:28,040
There are others to blame,
from my perspective.

1302
01:23:29,360 --> 01:23:31,599
I swear by Almighty God that...

1303
01:23:31,600 --> 01:23:33,479
<i>Eric Pickles was secretary of state</i>

1304
01:23:33,480 --> 01:23:36,399
<i>responsible for fire safety
before Grenfell.</i>

1305
01:23:36,400 --> 01:23:37,920
...and nothing but the truth.

1306
01:23:38,880 --> 01:23:40,759
I think it's important

1307
01:23:40,760 --> 01:23:43,079
for everybody who's giving evidence
in a public inquiry

1308
01:23:43,080 --> 01:23:45,519
to realize that the purpose
is to get to the truth.

1309
01:23:45,520 --> 01:23:49,159
And in giving evidence, I think
people also need to recognize that,

1310
01:23:49,160 --> 01:23:52,480
at the end of the day, this inquiry
is being held because people died.

1311
01:23:53,080 --> 01:23:56,200
{\an8}Feel free to ask me
as many questions as you like,

1312
01:23:57,040 --> 01:23:59,239
{\an8}but could I respectfully remind you

1313
01:23:59,240 --> 01:24:02,439
that you did promise
that we would be away this morning?

1314
01:24:02,440 --> 01:24:06,799
And I have changed my schedules
to... to fit this in.

1315
01:24:06,800 --> 01:24:09,959
I do have an extremely busy day
meeting, uh, people.

1316
01:24:09,960 --> 01:24:12,159
But this is more important than anything.

1317
01:24:12,160 --> 01:24:14,960
But I would urge you
to use your time wisely.

1318
01:24:19,080 --> 01:24:20,000
Right.

1319
01:24:21,280 --> 01:24:23,119
<i>Lord Pickles was repeatedly asked</i>

1320
01:24:23,120 --> 01:24:25,959
<i>about the Conservative Party's
drive to deregulate</i>

1321
01:24:25,960 --> 01:24:30,640
<i>and get rid of health and safety rules
in the years before Grenfell.</i>

1322
01:24:31,720 --> 01:24:33,159
The government at the time,

1323
01:24:33,160 --> 01:24:36,439
before I became prime minister,
was very keen on ensuring

1324
01:24:36,440 --> 01:24:40,040
that they, as far as possible,
were reducing the number of regulations.

1325
01:24:41,720 --> 01:24:43,879
I think what we see from the inquiry

1326
01:24:43,880 --> 01:24:48,439
was that too many people
just weren't looking at those regulations

1327
01:24:48,440 --> 01:24:52,039
perhaps with a sense of recognizing
the importance of them

1328
01:24:52,040 --> 01:24:53,640
in terms of keeping people safe.

1329
01:24:55,600 --> 01:24:59,959
In fact,
your department was always subject

1330
01:24:59,960 --> 01:25:01,879
to the deregulatory agenda,

1331
01:25:01,880 --> 01:25:04,679
which led to a complete absence
of proper checks and balances

1332
01:25:04,680 --> 01:25:06,960
so far as concerns life safety.

1333
01:25:08,680 --> 01:25:10,480
Again, I think that would be unkind.

1334
01:25:11,080 --> 01:25:16,040
And I have to say, um, you know,
without getting too emotional,

1335
01:25:17,440 --> 01:25:19,120
I swore on the bloody Bi... Oh!

1336
01:25:19,800 --> 01:25:21,240
I swore on the Bible.

1337
01:25:22,440 --> 01:25:23,400
I'm a Christian.

1338
01:25:23,920 --> 01:25:27,639
And what happened in Grenfell
is there was regulation there,

1339
01:25:27,640 --> 01:25:30,479
but, sadly, it wasn't up to the purpose.

1340
01:25:30,480 --> 01:25:32,359
It wasn't able to do its job

1341
01:25:32,360 --> 01:25:34,840
because companies were able
to find a way around it.

1342
01:25:41,440 --> 01:25:43,840
<i>But we should never lose sight
that this is not about...</i>

1343
01:25:45,720 --> 01:25:48,160
<i>...deregulation, "one in, one out."</i>

1344
01:25:51,280 --> 01:25:52,759
<i>Ultimately, it comes... uh, it...</i>

1345
01:25:52,760 --> 01:25:55,920
<i>it comes down to the nameless,</i>

1346
01:25:56,600 --> 01:25:58,679
<i>I think it was 96 people, who... who were...</i>

1347
01:25:58,680 --> 01:26:01,119
<i>who were killed in...
in</i>... <i>in the Grenfell fire.</i>

1348
01:26:01,120 --> 01:26:03,160
<i>It's... it's them we should think about.</i>

1349
01:26:04,600 --> 01:26:07,879
As everybody knows,
72 residents of Grenfell Tower died.

1350
01:26:07,880 --> 01:26:11,920
Ninety-six was the number of victims
of the Hillsborough disaster.

1351
01:26:14,040 --> 01:26:16,399
That number 72 should sit with everybody,

1352
01:26:16,400 --> 01:26:17,960
if it's important to you.

1353
01:26:18,720 --> 01:26:22,439
If it's not important to you, then, yeah,
sure, it's something you'll forget.

1354
01:26:22,440 --> 01:26:24,159
You'll just mix it up
with another disaster

1355
01:26:24,160 --> 01:26:25,920
where a lot of working-class people died.

1356
01:26:28,240 --> 01:26:31,920
Each and every one had a life
and an expectation of life.

1357
01:26:33,480 --> 01:26:37,399
This was a fire which had come
into their homes from outside.

1358
01:26:37,400 --> 01:26:44,040
And that, to me,
was an intrusion of universal horror.

1359
01:26:46,040 --> 01:26:49,440
I think there are a number
of things that we all need to learn.

1360
01:26:50,120 --> 01:26:53,519
One of the key issues, for me,
was this question of a country

1361
01:26:53,520 --> 01:26:57,519
that... that felt
that there were a group of people

1362
01:26:57,520 --> 01:27:00,879
whose very housing
that they were living in

1363
01:27:00,880 --> 01:27:04,560
meant that they were, in some sense,
second class to others.

1364
01:27:06,920 --> 01:27:09,040
And we've seen that time and time again.

1365
01:27:09,640 --> 01:27:12,600
Authorities have treated people
like second-class citizens.

1366
01:27:13,640 --> 01:27:16,839
And I hope that,
coming out of the Grenfell tragedy,

1367
01:27:16,840 --> 01:27:19,360
we can erase that sense.

1368
01:27:22,560 --> 01:27:26,719
<i>312 days and 300,000 documents later,</i>

1369
01:27:26,720 --> 01:27:28,520
<i>the inquiry is over.</i>

1370
01:27:30,040 --> 01:27:32,840
<i>The chairman's report
will give recommendations.</i>

1371
01:27:33,360 --> 01:27:36,680
<i>For now, though,
all families can do is wait.</i>

1372
01:27:40,560 --> 01:27:42,919
There started to be
small gatherings of the community

1373
01:27:42,920 --> 01:27:45,600
on the 14th of every month
outside the tower.

1374
01:27:47,240 --> 01:27:50,720
And then it went to one march
every year on the anniversary.

1375
01:27:52,320 --> 01:27:55,319
It is a protest, as well,
from the community

1376
01:27:55,320 --> 01:27:58,440
that says we're still here,
we're still waiting for justice.

1377
01:28:01,440 --> 01:28:04,360
I started looking at, um, social media.

1378
01:28:05,080 --> 01:28:10,360
I noticed a message from a friend of mine
who I hadn't spoken to in a long time.

1379
01:28:11,280 --> 01:28:12,840
And then...

1380
01:28:13,760 --> 01:28:15,400
...the realization was that I was...

1381
01:28:15,960 --> 01:28:17,480
I was looking for their niece.

1382
01:28:23,760 --> 01:28:28,399
But I think it slowly became apparent
that, um... that instead of going down,

1383
01:28:28,400 --> 01:28:31,120
she had gone up to escape the smoke.

1384
01:28:32,640 --> 01:28:34,440
And she'd gone to the top of the tower...

1385
01:28:36,000 --> 01:28:39,040
...and died, um, on the 23rd floor.

1386
01:28:43,720 --> 01:28:46,160
My whole world just fell apart.

1387
01:28:56,400 --> 01:29:00,680
He laid the women and children on the bed.

1388
01:29:01,200 --> 01:29:05,759
And he would have been
the last to have died.

1389
01:29:05,760 --> 01:29:09,800
And his body was found
at the foot of the bed

1390
01:29:10,520 --> 01:29:12,520
where he was sitting on the floor.

1391
01:29:13,480 --> 01:29:14,759
Um, so we know,

1392
01:29:14,760 --> 01:29:17,799
and that's why we say
he was their comforter.

1393
01:29:17,800 --> 01:29:18,840
He was a...

1394
01:29:20,400 --> 01:29:21,600
decent human being.

1395
01:29:23,160 --> 01:29:24,720
{\an8}He would have looked after them

1396
01:29:25,440 --> 01:29:26,440
{\an8}to the end.

1397
01:29:31,400 --> 01:29:32,920
I think about them a lot.

1398
01:29:35,360 --> 01:29:39,120
You actually... you actually found out about
the people we lost and we couldn't save.

1399
01:29:40,160 --> 01:29:41,520
Never done that before.

1400
01:29:43,320 --> 01:29:45,440
And that... and that was hard.

1401
01:29:58,080 --> 01:30:02,800
He was left with no options,
just to try to escape from the window.

1402
01:30:03,760 --> 01:30:07,400
He tried to use the sheets
that were tied together.

1403
01:30:08,560 --> 01:30:12,199
However, I don't think
he... he made it all the way down,

1404
01:30:12,200 --> 01:30:15,400
so... he did fall from the window.

1405
01:30:17,880 --> 01:30:21,200
{\an8}If you try to jump from the window,
it means you lost hope.

1406
01:30:22,720 --> 01:30:26,640
{\an8}And I'm very angry with everyone
who was responsible for his death.

1407
01:30:31,520 --> 01:30:35,520
After the fire,
we were taken to King's College Hospital.

1408
01:30:36,760 --> 01:30:39,600
The doctors came and said
they... they needed to speak to me.

1409
01:30:41,280 --> 01:30:43,639
They said that they were gonna
need to make a call

1410
01:30:43,640 --> 01:30:45,480
between Andreia and the baby.

1411
01:30:47,240 --> 01:30:49,799
- I've ordered it online.
- Oh.

1412
01:30:49,800 --> 01:30:52,039
They said, "In these circumstances,

1413
01:30:52,040 --> 01:30:54,320
we take the mother's side."

1414
01:30:55,360 --> 01:30:58,200
And I said, "Yeah, I understand
that's what you need to do."

1415
01:30:58,720 --> 01:31:01,920
That's when they said, um,
Logan had passed away.

1416
01:31:08,720 --> 01:31:10,680
Seventy-two people died.

1417
01:31:13,040 --> 01:31:16,439
Eighteen of them were children,

1418
01:31:16,440 --> 01:31:19,039
including my son,
who was the youngest victim.

1419
01:31:19,040 --> 01:31:20,639
Um...

1420
01:31:20,640 --> 01:31:24,680
You know, they were all robbed...
of whatever they could have become.

1421
01:31:28,440 --> 01:31:31,880
{\an8}Once upon a time, there was

1422
01:31:32,520 --> 01:31:35,279
{\an8}a boy on a boat.

1423
01:31:35,280 --> 01:31:38,840
He lived happily ever after.

1424
01:31:51,360 --> 01:31:56,199
<i>I wanna sing, I wanna shout</i>

1425
01:31:56,200 --> 01:32:00,919
<i>I wanna scream till the words dry out</i>

1426
01:32:00,920 --> 01:32:04,559
<i>So put it in all of the papers</i>

1427
01:32:04,560 --> 01:32:06,639
<i>I'm not afraid</i>

1428
01:32:06,640 --> 01:32:09,559
<i>They can read all about it</i>

1429
01:32:09,560 --> 01:32:12,960
<i>Read all about it</i>

1430
01:32:17,400 --> 01:32:19,760
You feel guilty, in a way.

1431
01:32:23,400 --> 01:32:25,200
I feel guilty that

1432
01:32:26,040 --> 01:32:28,840
I'm here living, doing my life...

1433
01:32:32,840 --> 01:32:34,480
and they're not.

1434
01:32:38,880 --> 01:32:41,559
<i>Seven years after the Grenfell Tower fire,</i>

1435
01:32:41,560 --> 01:32:46,119
<i>the final report into what caused
the disaster is due to be published.</i>

1436
01:32:46,120 --> 01:32:48,839
<i>The inquiry has no power
to punish or compensate.</i>

1437
01:32:48,840 --> 01:32:52,400
<i>There's likely to be
separate criminal trials to do that.</i>

1438
01:32:57,640 --> 01:32:59,960
<i>We are just about to hear from the chair.</i>

1439
01:33:01,400 --> 01:33:04,359
<i>Not all of them
bear the same degree of responsibility,</i>

1440
01:33:04,360 --> 01:33:07,680
<i>but all contributed to it
in one way or another,</i>

1441
01:33:08,400 --> 01:33:10,479
<i>in most cases through incompetence,</i>

1442
01:33:10,480 --> 01:33:14,239
but in some cases,
through dishonesty and greed.

1443
01:33:14,240 --> 01:33:17,159
A damning final report
into the Grenfell disaster.

1444
01:33:17,160 --> 01:33:21,679
A catalog of negligence so complete
that it's almost unimaginable.

1445
01:33:21,680 --> 01:33:24,799
And it's that word "avoidable"
that really strikes you.

1446
01:33:24,800 --> 01:33:28,079
<i>What families want
is criminal prosecutions,</i>

1447
01:33:28,080 --> 01:33:31,599
<i>but they've been told
that's not gonna happen for years.</i>

1448
01:33:31,600 --> 01:33:35,520
<i>Their lives are on hold,
while those responsible walk free.</i>

1449
01:33:36,400 --> 01:33:39,320
<i>The inquiry made 58 recommendations.</i>

1450
01:33:40,280 --> 01:33:43,800
<i>Top of the list,
a change to building regulations.</i>

1451
01:33:48,800 --> 01:33:52,079
I'd now like to introduce Pete Apps,

1452
01:33:52,080 --> 01:33:56,639
a journalist who has supported the fight
and call for justice in this community

1453
01:33:56,640 --> 01:33:59,519
ever since the fire,
seven years ago today.

1454
01:33:59,520 --> 01:34:01,400
Please give him a warm welcome.

1455
01:34:08,040 --> 01:34:12,439
Like many of the people here,
I've been coming to these silent walks

1456
01:34:12,440 --> 01:34:13,640
for seven years.

1457
01:34:14,960 --> 01:34:18,800
During each march,
72 names are always read.

1458
01:34:21,240 --> 01:34:23,679
But today I want to give you
another list of names.

1459
01:34:23,680 --> 01:34:27,560
They are the names
many want us to forget, but we will not.

1460
01:34:29,040 --> 01:34:31,480
So remember RBKC.

1461
01:34:50,720 --> 01:34:52,800
<i>Remember the London Fire Brigade.</i>

1462
01:35:05,520 --> 01:35:08,560
To be honest,
I'm sure this could happen again.

1463
01:35:11,080 --> 01:35:14,799
But we still don't know
who's the people who's gonna be in prison,

1464
01:35:14,800 --> 01:35:19,160
so they're just kind of
making me lost now.

1465
01:35:30,600 --> 01:35:32,440
<i>Remember KCTMO.</i>

1466
01:35:43,680 --> 01:35:46,360
So much time has passed
and so little has changed.

1467
01:35:46,880 --> 01:35:48,600
That's what Grenfell's about.

1468
01:35:49,600 --> 01:35:55,239
It's a story
of heartbreaking, unbelievable cruelty

1469
01:35:55,240 --> 01:35:59,440
to citizens in a country where I'm sure
we don't think we behave that way.

1470
01:36:01,280 --> 01:36:02,760
<i>Remember Kingspan.</i>

1471
01:36:16,280 --> 01:36:17,760
<i>Remember Celotex.</i>

1472
01:36:26,280 --> 01:36:29,439
Until human life means more than profit,

1473
01:36:29,440 --> 01:36:31,360
things are never going to change.

1474
01:36:32,400 --> 01:36:34,399
There are thousands of buildings

1475
01:36:34,400 --> 01:36:38,000
that still have the combustible cladding
on those buildings.

1476
01:36:40,360 --> 01:36:41,760
Remember Arconic.

1477
01:36:59,080 --> 01:37:04,079
Justice is not only the removal
of all of the dangerous cladding

1478
01:37:04,080 --> 01:37:05,959
that's on the other buildings,

1479
01:37:05,960 --> 01:37:11,879
but also that decision-makers
of those organizations

1480
01:37:11,880 --> 01:37:13,480
are held to account

1481
01:37:14,560 --> 01:37:18,320
for the death of my brother
and the other 71 victims.

1482
01:37:19,880 --> 01:37:21,800
Do not think you have gotten away with it.

1483
01:37:23,200 --> 01:37:27,720
We will keep your names
in our minds and on our lips

1484
01:37:29,080 --> 01:37:34,159
until we see justice
for the 72 names we hold in our hearts.

1485
01:37:34,160 --> 01:37:36,080
Thank you very much.

1486
01:37:58,160 --> 01:38:00,480
We just want justice, you know?

1487
01:38:03,040 --> 01:38:06,120
I don't think that's too much to ask.



