Some survivors of the 2017 Grenfell fire in London angry at plans to demolish death trap tower block

The Grenfell Tower and memorial wall on the seventh anniversary of the fire, in North Kensington, London, June 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

LONDON — Some of those who lost loved ones in the fire that ripped through London’s Grenfell Tower in 2017 have blasted government plans to demolish the shell of the apartment block, which they want to preserve as a monument to the 72 people who died in the blaze.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner met with relatives and survivors on Wednesday to discuss the government’s decision ahead of a formal announcement on Friday. Grenfell United, which represents some of the bereaved, claimed their voices had been ignored.

“Angela Rayner could not give a reason for her decision to demolish the tower,’’ the group said. “She refused to confirm how many bereaved and survivors had been spoken to in the recent, short four-week consultation.’’

The remains of the 24-story apartment building loom over the North Kensington neighborhood in west London, providing a constant reminder of the lives that were lost when a fast-moving fire gutted the tower in the early morning hours of June 14, 2017. While some survivors see the hulk as a fitting memorial, others say redeveloping the site would help the community heal.

Government officials have declined to discuss their decision before the public announcement. The government previously said the Grenfell site would remain unchanged at least until the eighth anniversary of the disaster in June.

A public inquiry into the disaster concluded that decades of failures by government, regulators and industry turned the apartment block into a “death trap.”

The investigation found no “single cause” of the tragedy but said a combination of dishonest companies, weak regulators and complacent government authorities led the building to be covered in combustible cladding that turned a small refrigerator fire into the deadliest blaze on British soil since World War II.

Danica Kirka, The Associated Press