Grenfell tower fire inquiry live: Final report published today as relatives demand justice

Victim Gloria Trevisan, who lived on the 23rd floor with her boyfriend Marco Gottardi, 27, spent her final moments on the phone to her mother.

She told her: “I had my whole life ahead of me. It’s not fair. I don’t want to die.”

The pair had moved to London from Venice around for months before the fire to look for jobs after graduating from the University of Padua.

One victim, five-year-old Isaac Paulos, was discovered five levels below the flat where he lived with his family after he became separated from them during the fire.

His father said: “My son was beautiful, a little boy with so much potential. I will never forget Isaac’s big, beautiful eyes, his calm look.”

Zainab Deen, 32, and her two-year-old son lived on the 14th floor of the tower blocked and were killed in the fire in 2017.

Ms Deen was on the phone with her brother until 4am on the day of the fire. Her family said: “Zainab had it all; she was beautiful, smart, warm, caring and a confident and outgoing young woman.”

Of her son Jeremiah, they said: “He was loving, full of life, liked playing football and loved exploring and adventuring.”

A long-awaited report into the deaths of 72 people in a fire at Grenfell Tower is due to be published more than seven years after the blaze.

The lengthy document – the final report of the inquiry into the 2017 disaster – is expected to lay out in detail its findings around the actions of corporate firms in the construction industry, the local authority, London Fire Brigade and government.

Families of those killed have insisted it must be a “landmark report” which prompts widescale change after what was described as a “spider’s web of blame” was spun during inquiry hearings.

The Grenfell disaster claimed the lives of 72 people. Each one somebody’s father, mother, brother, sister, relative, friend or neighbour, they ranged in age from an unborn baby to an 84-year-old woman.

During seven days of commemorations during the first phase of the public inquiry into the fire, tributes were paid to most of the victims.

Some of their stories are below.

The 65-year-old retired lorry driver had lived on the 10th floor of Grenfell Tower for eight years.

In a statement, his son Lee said: “He was a very special person and I would like him to be remembered for who he was when he was alive.

“He was always there to help anyone, no matter who you were or where you came from.”

Mr Jafari lived on the 10th floor and tried to escape the tower with his wife and daughter when the fire broke out.

They got in a lift but Mr Jafari got out after suffering breathing problems. He was later pulled out by firefighters but was pronounced dead at the scene.

His son Hamid Ali Jafari said in a video tribute: “I think the happiest moment he had was when my son was born, because he was attached to him a lot.”

Those who put profit above people’s lives must end up behind bars for justice to be served, the aunt of a child killed in the Grenfell Tower fire has said.

Sandra Ruiz said lives had been “shattered” by the 2017 blaze, with her 12-year-old niece Jessica Urbano Ramirez among the 72 people killed.

Ms Ruiz said people must be held to account and that the only justice she can accept is seeing perpetrators jailed for their roles in what happened.

It was payday – Emma Louise O’Connor and her partner Luke had treated themselves to a pizza and gone to bed in their 20th-floor flat, only to be awoken by a fire alarm in the early hours. The date was 14 June 2017 and, 16 floors below Emma’s home atGrenfell, a fridge-freezer in Flat 16 had caught ablaze.

At 1.21am – less than 40 minutes after the fire began – Emma, who has mobility issues, and her partner managed to leave the building, taking a smoke-filled lift down to the ground floor. They had escaped just before the blaze took hold across the tower block, engulfing the flammable cladding, in a tragedy that killed 72.

“I went into shock,” says Emma. “I remember being dragged away from the scene by my partner who took me to my mum’s nearby. Looking at the building burning, I couldn’t actually believe what I was watching.”

The report’s findings could ramp up pressure on police and prosecutors to make speedier progress on getting people before the courts – something many bereaved and survivors have said must happen for justice to be served.

In May, the Metropolitan Police said their investigators need until the end of 2025 to finalise their inquiry, and prosecutors will then need a year to decide whether charges can be brought.

Bereaved and survivors have described that wait, which could stretch to a decade after the catastrophic fire, as “unbearable”.

According to the update from police and prosecutors earlier this year, the mammoth police investigation into the fire has already generated 27,000 lines of inquiry and more than 12,000 witness statements.

A total of 58 individuals and 19 companies and organisations are under investigation for potential criminal offences, and more than 300 hours of interviews have taken place.

Potential offences under consideration include corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, perverting the course of justice, misconduct in public office, health and safety offences, fraud and offences under the fire safety and building regulations.

The long-running inquiry’s second report into the Grenfell Tower fire will present findings today on how the west London tower block came to be in a condition which allowed the flames to spread so quickly, claiming the lives of 72 people.

The report into phase one, published in October 2019, concluded the tower’s cladding did not comply with building regulations and was the “principal” reason for the rapid and “profoundly shocking” spread of the blaze.

It is expected inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick and his two panel members will now go on to lay out their detailed findings regarding the actions of corporate firms in the construction industry, the local authority, London Fire Brigade and the government.

The final hearing of the second phase of the inquiry took place in November 2022 and families have previously spoken of their long wait and continued fight for justice.