Bereaved father: Grenfell documentary must mark turning point in justice fight
Marcio Gomes, whose son Logan was stillborn after the 2017 disaster, said he hoped audiences might be prompted to 'start shouting' about a disaster which 'should matter to every single person'.
Grenfell: Uncovered, on Netflix from June 20, follows the final report of the inquiry into the fire which concluded each of the 72 deaths was avoidable and had been preceded by 'decades of failure' by government and the building industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.
Bereaved and survivors were 'badly failed' through incompetence, dishonesty and greed and the west London tower block was covered in combustible products because of the 'systematic dishonesty' of firms who made and sold the cladding and insulation, inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said last year.
Sir Martin called out 'deliberate and sustained' manipulation of fire safety testing, misrepresentation of test data and misleading of the market.
Mr Gomes, who said he lives with the devastating consequences of the fire every day, said the documentary sets out the failures of various organisations in the years leading up to the fire.
In an interview with the PA news agency ahead of the documentary's release, he said: 'Ultimately, I'm hoping that people understand that this was no accident. This was very much avoidable, and these companies had a huge role to play in what happened.
'And I think people, especially in Britain – but this is a global thing, it's not just in the UK – need to start shouting about these companies, need to hold them to account.
'Because these companies have a duty of care but they've ignored it completely.
'And I'm hoping that this documentary is a turning point that will then bring prosecutions and justice to the families.'
A number of companies are referred to in the documentary.
The inquiry report saw cladding firm Arconic and insulation firms Kingspan and Celotex come in for particularly heavy criticism.
Arconic was found to have 'deliberately concealed from the market the true extent of the danger' of using its cladding product, particularly on high-rise buildings.
Kingspan had, from 2005 and even after the inquiry began, 'knowingly created a false market in insulation' for use on buildings over 18 metres, the report said.
Celotex then, in an attempt to break into this market created by Kingspan, 'embarked on a dishonest scheme to mislead its customers and the wider market', Sir Martin concluded.
The Cabinet Office confirmed in February that seven companies were facing possible bans – Arconic, Kingspan, former Celotex owners Saint-Gobain, fire inspectors Exova, design and build contractor Rydon, architect Studio E and subcontractor Harley Facades.
Investigations were launched by the Government in March, assessing whether any engaged in professional misconduct for the purposes of the Procurement Act 2023, potentially leading them to be debarred from public contracts.
Mr Gomes said he hoped the 100-minute documentary would see people back the bereaved and survivors' fight for justice, as it sets out how firms were 'prioritising profits ahead of people's lives'.
He said: 'Eight years on, we've had no prosecutions. And justice can't continue to wait, in my opinion, and if you live in Britain, as we do, this should matter to every single person.
'Knowing that these companies that greatly contributed to something that was avoidable, as the inquiry said, are still making record profits and still working globally is appalling, in my view.
'So seeing this and then comparing to how my life is, and comparing to how many people's lives have been destroyed, in many ways, is horrific.'
Mr Gomes said he hoped viewers might be moved to take some kind of action, from writing to their MPs to spreading the word on social media.
He said: 'I think if they can do whatever's in their power, and if that's writing a letter to the MPs about getting justice or removing the cladding (on other buildings), then that's what I'd love to see.
'It's whatever people can do – avoid their products, get the message out there. These companies need to feel some pain and that's not even close to what we've gone through.'
Bereaved and survivors gathered at the weekend to mark the eighth anniversary of the fire, which took place on June 14 2017.
Demolition work on the tower could begin in September, with the decision to remove the building met with criticism from some of the bereaved and survivors, who felt their views had not been considered.
Responding to the inquiry report last year, Arconic said it was its subsidiary, Arconic Architectural Products SAS (AAP), which had supplied the material used for cladding in the tower's refurbishment, and that it rejects 'any claim that AAP sold an unsafe product' and that it 'did not conceal information from or mislead any certification body, customer, or the public'.
Kingspan said it had 'long acknowledged the wholly unacceptable historical failings that occurred in part of our UK insulation business' but said these were 'in no way reflective of how we conduct ourselves as a group, then or now', while Celotex said it had 'reviewed and improved process controls, quality management and the approach to marketing within the Celotex business to meet industry best practice'.
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20 hours ago
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‘Grenfell: Uncovered' interview: ‘This community lost so much and got so little back'
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There's a protocol you can count on to follow a public disaster in this country. It tends to begin with a years' long and expensive inquiry, and end with little change and none of the responsible parties being held to account. Some, if they're lucky, may even find themselves elevated to the House of Lords. That establishment playbook is in operation again in this poignant, winding and righteously angry documentary about the Grenfell tower fire – just as it was in ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office or Disney+'s 7/7 drama Suspect. Directed with forensic skill and lots of compassion by first-timer Olaide Sadiq, Grenfell: Uncovered holds the survivors of the fire in one hand, honouring their anger and grief in moving interviews, while using the other to slap down the many companies and governmental bodies whose decisions led to the loss of 72 lives on the night of June 14, 2017. The title, of course, has a poignant double meaning. The aluminium cladding applied to the residential tower block for aesthetic reasons – supposedly to satisfy Grenfell's well-heeled neighbours in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea – turned a small kitchen fire into a building-wide inferno, transforming the Fire Brigade's 'stay put' policy into a death sentence for residents. This is a poignant, winding and righteously angry documentary Sadiq pieces the night of the fire back together using audio from the emergency services, news footage, and the shakycam videos of locals. The shock and dawning horror of disembodied voices as the blaze takes hold stays with you. The list of guilty parties is long – from David Cameron's deregulation craze, to the deeply cynical cladding manufacturers, to the cost and corner-cutting of local government, and beyond – and even on that roll of dishonour ex-housing minister Eric Pickles (now Lord Pickles) is especially odious: telling the Grenfell inquiry not to 'waste his time' and confusing the death toll with Hillsborough. Campaigning housing journalist Peter Apps, heartbroken firefighter David Badillo, and a host of Grenfell residents, including teenage survivor Luana Gomes, bring humanity and heart to the story. There's so much in Grenfell: Uncovered about the state of modern Britain that Sadiq does brilliantly not to get sidetracked. About how working-class communities are talked down to and ignored. About how capitalism pursues profit even at the expense of endangering lives. About how the urgent need for change is stymied and sapped by the very review process designed to expedite it.
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