London, United Kingdom. Survivors of the towering inferno fire at Grenfell are now venting on UK and city officials as reports emerge that materials used in the low income project were sub-standard cost-cutting substitutions for better materials that possibly may not have burned. The Grenfell Tower housed about 600 people in 120 apartments. Some 70 people are still missing after the fire.
British engineering experts say outside insulation panels installed on the 24-story Grenfell Tower may have helped the fire spread rapidly from one floor to the next. News Front reported Friday that contractors installed a cheaper, less flame-resistant type of paneling in the renovation that ended in May 2016.
Resident tempers were high Friday two days after the overnight fire gutted the huge housing block, killing at least 30 people and leaving dozens missing and hundreds homeless.The Grenfell Tower project housed about 600 people in 120 apartments. News Front confirmed that some 70 people are still missing after the fire.
The city of London has a chronic housing shortage even in the best of times, and those left homeless by the fire, already angry over what they see as government inequity and incompetence fear being forced out of the British capital. Meanwhile violent scuffles broke out near the Kensington and Chelsea town hall offices as demonstrators chanting “We want justice!” surged toward the doors.
Mayor Sadiq Khan said people were frustrated by the lack of information about the missing and the dead as well as a lack of coordination between support services. Residents who survived the tower blaze lost everything and have no idea where they are going to live or how they will get back on their feet.
On a national level, UK PM Theresa May announced a $6.4 million dollar fund to help residents and expressed sorrow for their plight. The package includes a guarantee to rehouse people as close as possible to where they previously lived in a poor neighborhood surrounded by extreme wealth.