The Grenfell Tower fire tragedy: What happened in the 'path to disaster'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

The final report arising from the long-running public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy was published today, with the inquiry's chairman saying he found the inferno 'was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry'.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the chairman, said government and the construction industry failed to 'look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them'.

In a damming report, he said there were 'many opportunities' to identify risks posed by 'combustible cladding panels and insulation', particularly in high-rise buildings.

But government departments, Sir Martin said, 'failed to act' on what they knew and failed to 'heed' a warning given many years before the tragedy in west London in 2017. READ MORE: Grenfell Tower report LIVE as document published seven years after deadly fire The Environment and Transport Select Committee said in December 1999 that 'it should not take a serious fire in which people were killed before steps were taken to minimise the risks posed by some external cladding systems', the report said.