Grenfell: Building a Disaster - Ep 3: Bad Behaviour

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Podcast

BBC

News

4.8 • 627 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How manufacturers sold combustible cladding

When Marcio Gomes found out that Grenfell Tower, where he lived, was going to be covered in cladding, he assumed it must be safe. Today we know this material was the main cause of the spread of the fire at Grenfell Tower.

The cladding installed on the tower was made by French company, Arconic - it was highly combustible. Prior to the fire at Grenfell, Arconic staff were warned that covering a tower block in this material could add the fuel power of an oil tanker to the outside walls. Why did they sell it anyway? And how was that allowed?

Presenter: Kate Lamble Producer: Josephine Casserly Production coordinator: Janet Staples Audio engineers: James Beard and Gareth Jones Story consultant: Simon Maybin Editor: Penny Murphy

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:07.4	The view was fantastic.
0:10.5	And we used to invite our friends and family round to celebrate New Year's.
0:15.0	I kind of see the Tower Bridge and the London Eye and where the fireworks was coming out.
0:20.3	Marcio Gomez lived with his family on the 21st floor of Grenfell Tower.
0:24.9	It felt like from the first moment I stepped in through the door.
0:28.5	The amount of light that you get into every room was amazing.
0:32.3	You had windows pretty much all the way around, so it felt very airy, very spacious.
0:37.9	Five years after they moved in, talk started of refurbishing the building.
0:42.6	Posters were pinned up, visions of the future.
0:45.7	They had sort of these designs on what the towel would look going forward
0:50.2	after the work has been refurbished.
0:52.7	And as you can imagine, it's all very pretty and all very nice and blue skies and everything.
0:56.8	Metallic-looking cladding panels would be fitted across the outside of the building,
1:01.1	keeping the rain off.
1:02.7	Residents were asked which colour they'd prefer, which finish.
1:06.2	I've always said it looked like they've just stuck lipstick on the tower just to make it look pretty to the eye.
1:13.6	Fire safety was never discussed.
1:17.6	But this material was the main reason flames spread so quickly across the outside of Grenfell Tower in 2017.
1:26.6	This is the story of a fire which killed 72nd. Grenfell Tower in 2017.
1:32.2	This is the story of a fire which killed 72 people.
1:35.5	A fire both foreseeable and preventable.
	...

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