For almost eight years, wrapped in white and crowned green hearts, Grenfell Tower stood as a tragic monument to the worst housing fires in Britain’s history after World War II. On Friday, the Government confirmed that it would demolish the building, where 72 people died in a flame for which a public investigation blamed Deadly combination of negligence, reduction of costs and deregulation.
Decision, Deputy Government, Angela Rayner, divided the victims’ families when she Told them From that on Wednesday, before the official announcement. Some condemned the plan to demolish the building before justice was rejected by those responsible for the disaster; Others acknowledged that the Tower could not withstand in his present state of indefinitely.
The suffocated debate on the Grenfell tower echoes those in the places of other tragedies, such as the attack on the 11th of September in New York and Washington or the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, where destroyed buildings have become holy soil, glued with symbolism and memory.
Mrs. Rayner said the demolition would be done methodically over two years behind the protective wrapper. Parts of the tower and the material from it will be preserved so that they can become part of the future memorial. Carefully written statementIssued by the Ministry of Housing, the Community and the Local Administration, he tried to move with emotional crossword puzzles.
“The tower was the home of 72 innocent people who lost their lives and the survivors whose lives changed forever,” the statement said. “It is clear from the conversation remains a sacred place. It is also clear that there is no consensus about what should happen to him.”
The government may have alluded to the reaction after Mrs. Rayner’s meeting with the survivors and families of the victims when she informed them of the decision. One of the groups, Grenfell United, accused her of ignoring their views and claiming that there was a little support in the room to overthrow her.
Karim Mussilhy, whose uncle, Hesham Rahman, failed in the fire, said the Government discussed the statement of the statement-stretchily, claimed, said the alternative that the building was completely demolished.
“There is no reason for the tower to come down,” Mr Mussilhy said. “There are his parts that can stay forever.”
But the second group, Grenfell, besides Kin, said the focus should be on the memorial -and not to preserve the reddish remains of the building. “Do we want the whole tower to stand forever? Yes. Is that an option? Not from a structural standpoint,” the group said. “Do we need a way forward? That.”
Although the building was strengthened after a fire with thousands of props, construction engineers warned that it would continue to get worse. The government said that preserving more floors makes no sense from an engineering point of view. Even the preservation of fewer floors would, to be said, raise questions of equality with the families of the victims.
“It would not be fair to maintain some floors of buildings that are significant for some families without doing it for others and knowing that, for some, it would be deeply disturbing,” the statement said.
Some claimed that the building should be preserved because, in fact, it is a crime scene. A public investigation concluded that the catastrophe was caused by unscrupulous manufacturers, who supplied the cheap, combustible lining, which turned the tower into hell after fire in the early hours of June 14, 2017.
The investigation report also blamed the local council conducted by conservatives, which was eager to reduce the costs, as well as collected performers and an architectural company that oversee the renovation of the building for 24 floors. Originally built in 1972, Grenfell Tower became a brutalist landmark, near some of the most important London districts.
In her statement, the G Metropolitan police may not file their first criminal charges in the case of 2027.
The treatment of the place where the tragic loss of life came to a long -standing question was. After the truck bomb destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, there was a lively discussion of whether it should preserve and display the remains of a destroyed building as a monument of 168 people killed there.
A small part of the granite wall of the building is preserved and integrated into memory. Still symbolically, so was the segment of the railing of the chain connection that surrounded the place four years after the attack and became a warehouse for flowers, photographs and other memories left by visitors.
“These conversations are not right who is right or who is wrong,” said Edward T. Linenthal, professor of Emeritus history at Indiana University, who advised the Memorial Commission on how to honor the victims of terrorist attacks and mass shootings. “This is whose sensitivities you decide to honor and why.”
In the case of Grenfell Tower, he said, the unresolved search for justice adds another layer of complexity: although the fire was an accident and is not an attack, unlike Oklahoma City or September 11, 2001, it has some of the same features.
“When there is a mistreatment of any kind – loose wiring, class issues, poor government regulation – which adds sharpness to him,” said Professor Linenthal. “People have died there who did not need to. Whatever you decide to do, it takes time and it must be carefully.”
Among the proposals for memorial are the garden and monument to reach the sky. Last month, Memorial Commission -Memoria Grenfell Tower called a short list of five candidates to send design. He hopes to choose a winning team by the end of the summer and submit a detailed plan by the end of 2026.
In its destroyed state, with the green hearts and phrase “Grenfell, forever in our hearts”, imprinted on top of the wrapped building, Grenfell Tower has become a different kind of sights – a symbol of social inequality and costs of angry deregulation. Some are even a source of comfort.
“The opportunity to see the tower every day helps some people still feel close to those they lost,” the government said. “For others, a painful reminder is what happened and has a daily influence on some members of the community.”
