Grenfell Tower fire, Britain’s deadliest since World War II, caused by ‘decades of failure,’ report says

London (CNN) — The blaze that killed 72 people in Grenfell Tower in London was caused by “decades of failure” by the UK government and the construction industry that allowed the 24-storey building to be wrapped in flammable cladding, a seven-year public inquiry has found.

The fire began in the early hours of June 14, 2017, sparked by an electrical fault in a refrigerator on the fourth floor. What could have been a small house fire instead turned into Britain’s deadliest blaze since the Blitz, after the flames leapt to flammable insulation and cladding, which had been added to the tower during a major renovation the previous year.

A 1,700 page report spanning seven volumes laid out a litany of malpractice and negligence, from the cost-cutting measures and “systematic dishonesty” of construction firms to central government’s “deregulatory agenda.”

“The simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable,” Martin Moore-Bick, chair of the inquiry, said Wednesday. “Those who lived in the tower were badly failed over a number of years and in a number of different ways, by those who were responsible for ensuring the safety of the building and its occupiers.”

The report concluded that the fire was “the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry.”

It also singled out for criticism the Conservative-run local council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the firms which made and sold the cladding, the tenant management company, and others.

Addressing Parliament shortly after the report was released, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the inquiry had found that the Grenfell victims had been failed by “just about every institution responsible for ensuring their safety.”

“It should never have happened,” Starmer said, as some of the bereaved families watched from the parliamentary gallery. “The country failed to discharge its most fundamental duty: To protect you and your loved ones – the people that we are here to serve – and I am deeply sorry.”

Grenfell United, which represents the survivors and bereaved families of those killed in the blaze, said the report marked “a significant chapter in the journey to truth, justice and change,” but “justice has not been delivered.”

“The inquiry report reveals that whenever there’s a clash between corporate interest and public safety, governments have done everything they can to avoid their responsibilities to keep people safe,” it said in a statement. “The system isn’t broken, it was built this way.”

Despite waiting seven years for the final report, victims may have to wait at least another year before its findings result in criminal convictions, London’s Metropolitan Police said.

“To secure justice for those who died and all those affected by the fire we must examine the report – line by line – alongside the evidence from the criminal investigation,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said in a statement.

“This will take us at least 12-18 months,” he warned. “I can’t pretend to imagine the impact of such a long police investigation on the bereaved and survivors, but we have one chance to get our investigation right.”

Starmer said the new Labour government will “carefully consider the report and its recommendations, to ensure that such a tragedy cannot occur again.”

The inquiry had taken “longer than we hoped,” Moore-Bick said in a press conference, in part because it “unveiled many more matters of concern than we had previously expected.”

The fire prompted a wave of inspections in similar high-rise buildings across the country, unveiling widespread use of flammable cladding. CNN has previously reported on the plight of homeowners unable to sell their apartments because banks are unwilling to lend against them, citing safety issues.

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