72 dead. The figure emerged gradually, because the bodies took time to identify. Some families waited months. DNA tests, dental records. 72 people, aged 6 months to 84 years, plus a stillborn baby. 19 nationalities. Whole families wiped out: six members of the Choucair family, five of the Hashim family on the 22nd floor. 18 children.
Most died of asphyxiation. Not from the flames directly, but from what the facade gave off as it burned. In combustion, the cladding and insulation system produced asphyxiant gases, including carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide. Richard Hul compared the intensity of the fumes to four petrol tankers burning on the facade at the same time. The toxic smoke filled the corridors and flats long before the flames arrived. You die with your lungs burned from the inside, often before you even see the fire. The oldest of the victims had lived at Grenfell for more than thirty years.
Extract from emergency service communications
The “stay put” advice was still in force at 2am, when the building had been burning on every side for more than an hour. It was only officially abandoned at 02:47. After that, only 36 more people managed to escape. The inquiry concluded that the evacuation order should have been given an hour and twenty minutes earlier.
Of the 293 people in the tower that night, according to police analysis of the CCTV footage, 223 managed to escape. They went down the single staircase in total darkness. More than 70 injured. Hundreds displaced who, by morning, were left with nothing, some in pyjamas, some barefoot.
On 26 July 2017, at the fourth public meeting of the Grenfell Response Team, a local volunteer reported that there had been at least 20 suicide attempts in the area since the fire. Firefighters were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress. Survivors were rehoused in hotels, sometimes for months. A family of four in one room. No halal food.
Maria del Pilar Burton was 74. She was brought out alive from the 19th floor. She died seven months later, in January 2018. She is the 72nd official victim.
But what do you do with a death toll like this?
Fire brigade incident log