On Monday 9th November the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower Fire heard that the Grenfell Tower cladding companies knew for years their materials would burn as disclosed by internal documents submitted to the inquiry. The Guardian reported that lawyers for the bereaved and survivors revealed emails and slideshows from inside Arconic, Celotex and Kingspan, which they claimed showed “widespread and persistent wrongdoing” as they sold products they knew “were dangerous to life”. 72 people had died in the Grenfell fire in 2017, and the public inquiry is now starting its examination of the manufacture, marketing and testing of the materials used in the 2014-2016 refurbishment.
And Celotex, which made most of the plastic foam insulation, produced a “chilling” internal presentation in 2014 that announced it would be able to market its combustible product partly because “nobody understood the test requirements”, the inquiry heard.
“These companies … knew their materials would burn with lethal speed and yet they marketed their products into an uncaring and underregulated building industry which spread them around like a disease,” said Stein.
All three companies have denied wrongdoing. In statements to the inquiry last week, Arconic said the main fault lay with those responsible for the refurbishment, Celotex accused construction professionals of failing to follow building regulations and Kingspan said the outcome of the fire would have been no different if non-combustible insulation had been used.
