REMEMBERING GRENFELL
What year was Grenfell Tower built, how many people lived there, who was it named after and when did the fire take place?
AFTER a huge fire ripped through Grenfell Tower killing dozens, attention turned to the firm which looks after it.
Over a year on from the shocking blaze which shook Britain we take a look at the building's tragic history...
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When was Grenfell Tower built?
Grenfell Tower was built in 1974 by Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council. In 2017 it underwent a multi-million pound redevelopment.
It emerged that the fire was intensified by low-cost cladding that had been added to the building as part of the recent renovation work.
KCTMO saved £293,000 by downgrading the material used to clad the tower, according to leaked emails seen by The Times.
Price outlines and minutes of meeting seen by the newspaper also appear to show that cost-cutting was a priority for the housing association.
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KCTMO sent an urgent email to project management consultants, Artelia UK, which read: “We need good costs for Cllr Feilding-Mellen and the planner tomorrow at 8.45am!”
Rock Feilding-Mellen, deputy leader of the council, was overseeing the refurbishment.
The email suggested ways to bring the price down of the cladding such as using aluminium panels rather than zinc which would save £293,368.
Zinc panels would have been fireproof, whereas the aluminium panels that were eventually used contained a flammable polyethylene core.
Who is Grenfell Tower named after?
The tower was named after Grenfell Road which ran to the south of the building.
The road itself was named after Field Marshal Lord Grenfell, a senior British Army officer.
Grenfell was a decorated war hero who died in 1925 after successful campaigns in the Anglo-Zulu war and Anglo-Egyptian conflict.
He received the Honorary Freedom of the Borough from his native town Swansea in 1889.
He died aged 83 in Surrey and was buried at St Mary and All Saints Churchyard at Beaconsfield in Bucks.
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Where is Grenfell Tower?
The tower block is in west London, near Latimer Road tube station in the W11 postcode of the capital.
It is in north Kensington and very close to both Notting Hill, White City and the Westfield Shopping Centre.
Grenfell Tower is accessed via Station Walk which runs through Lancaster Green, just a few minutes walk from the Latimer Road tube stop.
The charred skeleton of the tower following the fire could be seen from miles around.
What date did the blaze start?
A large fire broke our just after 1am on the morning of Wednesday, June 14, 2017.
It is believed to have started on the fourth floor, before it quickly spread.
A Hotpoint fridge freezer FF175BP, in a fourth floor flat, was blamed for causing the deadly blaze.
Desperate people trapped inside the large building were heard screaming for help and horrified witnesses said they could see people waving sheets out of the windows, withsome jumping from the building.
The blaze was not brought under control until 1.14am on Thursday, June 15.
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How many people live at Grenfell Tower?
An exact figure is unknown but it is a 24-storey tower block with estimates in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy placing the number at around 24 people per floor.
Following the fire, the Metropolitan Police said around 255 people had escaped the blaze while 72 people had died.
However the precise number of people living in the tower at the time of the fire has never been announced.
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Who owns Grenfell Tower?
The housing block in West London is managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), on behalf of the council.
The 24-storey tower underwent a multi-million pound renovation project which was completed last year - but had no sprinkler system installed and residents raised safety concerns.
This included the installation of cladding - an item which some have blamed for the quick spreading of the fire in the early hours of June 14.
This led to the Prime Minister launching an urgent investigation into the disaster.
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