24-06-2025
NICOLA METHVEN 'New Netflix disaster documentary will make your blood boil'
I defy anyone to watch the Netflix documentary about the Grenfell disaster without feeling anguished at what the victims and their families went through, followed by an even stronger emotion - fury.
There won't be many viewers who get to the end of the 90 minutes without their blood boiling as the multiple injustices suffered by those living in Grenfell Tower at that time are laid bare for all to see.
It's a film that should be watched by everyone, so the full extent of the many failings that led to the fire are remembered, at a time when not a single person has been prosecuted.
Grenfell: Uncovered was released on Friday, and many who've watched it have been left - like me - gasping in shock at the way in which those affected by the tragedy were treated both in the run-up, the aftermath and ever since.
The stand-out moment, perhaps, is the unearthing of emails which prove beyond all doubt how cladding company Arconic absolutely knew that its flammable plastic product was unsuitable for a high rise building, or indeed any building over 12metres, but they sold it for Grenell anyway.
The safety tests they'd carried out told them in no uncertain terms about the lethal 'flaming droplets' that would be created in the event of a fire. They knew human life would inevitably be put in danger. But in the dogged pursuit of profit they decided to bury the outrageously bad safety results, hiding behind the fact that the sale of the cladding was at least legal in the UK at the time (it wasn't in many other countries).
The emails, especially those from technical manager Claude Werhle and others from senior Arconic executive Diana Perriah, show how the company's insistence that nothing was concealed from the public or customers or officials in terms of safety testing results is categorically untrue.
In fact they had fire tested the ACM cladding several times and the results were that it was so bad it was deemed upgradeable. The comment to this discovery, sent in an email, was "oops". You've got to wonder how Mr Werhle sleeps at night..
'This product was safe to use as a building material and permissible to sell in the UK,' Arconic insists in an infuriating statement shown at the end of the film. 'AAP [the company's French subsidiary which did the deal for Grenfell] did not conceal information from or mislead any certification body, customers or the public.' It's frankly astonishing, considering the inquiry found them to have "deliberately concealed" the true extent of the fire risk while displaying "systematic dishonesty".
The documentary highlights many shock moments as the survivors and the families of the victims push for justice. These include:
So the next big question is over whether the failings by the cladding companies, by the fire brigade or by the building's owner, the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, constitute criminal negligence. By next year, or perhaps 2027, this will be known, because the Met is carrying out its own investigation. That it could take a full decade for the culprits to be brought to justice - if that is indeed what happens - is yet another travesty, on top of the many that the survivors and bereaved have already endured. Anyone watching the documentary about the avoidable tragedy should prepare themselves for an extremely emotional ride. I do hope Lord Eric Pickles tunes in to see just how badly he comes across - there won't be many who witness his arrogance and aren't left staggered that he was made a life peer in 2018.
And perhaps, just a thought, it's time to remove all flammable cladding from UK buildings? As fire-fighter Dave Badillo sighed in an interview with the Mirror earlier this month - 'just get it off!'
- Grenfell: Uncovered is now streaming on Netflix
