Grenfell tower
© Hannah McKay / Reuters
The Grenfell Tower fire took the lives of 71 people, police have said, after recovering what they believe to be the last of the bodies.


Comment: They have only just done so??


Officers investigating the disaster said on Thursday they had identified the final two people who died as 71-year-old Victoria King and her 40-year-old daughter, Alexandra Atala.

"We were devastated to hear of our sister Vicky's fate and that of her daughter, Alexandra, in the Grenfell Tower tragedy," their relatives said in a statement.

"Some comfort can come from the knowledge that she and Alexandra were devoted to one another and spent so many mutually supportive years together. They died at each other's side and now they can rest together in peace. We will remember them always."

Scotland Yard does not expect to find any more people in the tower. Those who died included a family of six and at least three families of five, and ranged in ages from a stillborn baby boy to an 84-year-old woman.

Faith leaders in the area said the police statement marked an important moment. "The expectation of many people in the community was that the death toll was in the hundreds. So in a way this is good news, although every single death was and is a painful loss," said Abdurahman Sayed of al-Manaar mosque.
"The trauma and mourning is ongoing. Every Friday, during prayers, we witness the sadness on people's faces and the tears in their eyes. Many people are still not ready to talk about what they went through. The impact of the tragedy is long term and wider than the residents of the tower itself."
Father Alan Everett of St Clement's church said the announcement was a significant milestone. "The pain and grief of the past few months has been intensified by the uncertainty of not knowing how many perished in Grenfell Tower. The protracted recovery process has been very difficult for everyone," he said.
"The disaster has been so traumatic and disempowering that to be given a final figure is very important. But at the same time it drives home the scale of the loss. Every single person who died had a network of friends and family, and they are all still grieving. They need our thoughts and prayers."
Rev Mike Long, minister of the Notting Hill Methodist church, almost at the foot of the tower, said the last five months had been an appalling ordeal for those bereaved by the fire.
"The news that all those who so tragically lost their lives have now been recovered and identified marks a significant stage. Hopefully this will help in the long healing process and establishing confidence among the community.

"Behind these statistics are the lives of individual women, men and children whose loss is devastating. Our thoughts and prayers remain with all those who have lost loved ones, or continue to bear the scars of that night's traumatic events."
He said the "difficult and demanding work of the recovery and forensic teams has been remarkable, and their efforts need to be acknowledged".

Stuart Cundy, the Metropolitan police commander who is overseeing the investigation, said: "The human cost and terrible reality of what took place at Grenfell Tower affects so many people. Our search operation and ongoing investigation is about those people.

"I cannot imagine the agony and uncertainty that some families and loved ones have been through whilst we have carried out our meticulous search, recovery and identification process."


Comment: Notice what The Guardian just did: they blithely reported the astonishing fact that two more bodies were pulled out of the tower this week, then quickly lathered on the emotional guff about 'how awful the tragedy was' by going around to all the 'faith leaders' (with the Muslim one first, of course - can't be acknowledging that the UK is a christian country). This is exactly what US media does every time there's a cover-up: they don't question the 'facts' that are spoon-fed to them by the authorities - they instead wrap them up in 'positive messages about the need for everyone to stay strong and united'.


Among the dead were a mother who was found clutching her baby daughter. Her husband and another of their children also died in the fire, while a third child survived. An Italian couple who had moved to London together died, as did a family of three and the relative they are believed to have been visiting in the tower.

The Met said on Thursday that the tragedy "should never have happened". The force is conducting a criminal inquiry and officers have told survivors there are "reasonable grounds" to suspect Kensington and Chelsea council and the organisation that managed the tower block of corporate manslaughter.


Comment: There are also reasonable grounds to suspect that the real death toll is several hundred people:

Grenfell Tower inferno, Götterdämmerung for UK regime? Brexit, Corbyn, and Britain's constitutional crisis


Members of 320 households affected by the fire are still living in hotel accommodation, including more than 200 children from the tower and its neighbouring blocks.

An independent report published by the Grenfell Recovery Taskforce said council staff dealing with the traumatised survivors of the blaze needed to display "a greater degree of humanity".

Scotland Yard initially said it thought the final death toll would be about 80, but revised that estimate down in September. The coroner plans to open and adjourn the final inquests next Wednesday.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, 400 people were listed as missing. Police said footage showed 223 people escaping the fire, while others were not at home on the night of 14 June.

Police said 70 people died in the fire, and that a baby was stillborn afterwards and was added to the death toll.

The search of the tower is nearing its conclusion, with each flat and all of the communal areas having been checked. The process included a forensic fingertip search by specially trained officers, who examined 15.5 tonnes of debris on each floor. They were supported by forensic anthropologists, archaeologists and odontologists.

While officers do not expect the final stage of the search operation to be finished until early next month, they said it was "highly unlikely there is anyone who remains inside Grenfell Tower".


Comment: Wow, so their work there will run to 6 months. Are they trying to ensure that no trace remains pointing to what really happened?


Cundy said he had made it a priority that the bodies of those who died were recovered before any other work took place. "It is vital that our search and identification operation was undertaken in a manner that families and loved ones could have complete confidence in."


Comment: Who is this guy kidding??


Specialist teams working in the tower as well as the mortuary staff "pushed the boundaries of what was scientifically possible to identify people" said Cundy, adding that he had been concerned his team would be unable to recover and identify everyone when he first saw the extent of the damage.


Comment: He's blowing smoke.


They overcame that "for every person who lost their life, their families and loved ones, and all those for whom Grenfell Tower was home" he said.

The Met received thousands of calls reporting missing people in the aftermath of the fire, including many reports referring to the same people. One person was reported 46 times and others were identified by slightly different names.

"Even the slightest differences in spellings had to be thoroughly investigated and reconciled. Until that process was complete, those people continued to be regarded as missing," the force said.

Cundy said police had no reason to underplay the scale of the disaster. "There will be speculation ... Why on earth would we want to cover any of this up?" he said.


Comment: Uhm, because it unmasks the British regime as psychopathic, perhaps?


He said the key parts of the criminal investigation were how the building was constructed, the refurbishment, the management of the building and the fire safety measures. Another key point was "how did the fire spread from the flat to the rest of the building".

Cundy said the criminal investigation would be long and complex. Five months on from the fire, no search warrants have been sought or executed and no one has been arrested or interviewed under caution.

He said the remains of the tower were still a crime scene and searches and work there would continue until at least spring 2018. When police stop treating it as a crime scene and finish their work there, Cundy said, they would not object to its demolition if its owners wanted to do so.