Former prime minister Theresa May announced a public inquiry into the Grenfell fire just 24 hours after the tragedy in June 2017. That the project was set in motion while emergency services were still at the scene underlined a broad sense of shock and disbelief that a catastrophe of such a scale could have occurred in 21st-century London.
How was it possible for a reinforced concrete building, itself structurally impervious to fire, to be turned into a death trap for 72 of its own inhabitants?
With the publication of the inquiry’s final report seven years later, the “path to disaster” is now clear, with the report stating:
