London: British police increased the number of people killed or presumed dead in the London high-rise fire disaster to 80, saying Wednesday that a final death toll may not be known until the end of the year.
Most of those killed in the June 14 inferno at Grenfell Tower were believed to be from just 23 of the building’s 129 apartments, said Fiona McCormack, a Scotland Yard detective superintendent. The previous figure of people believed to have died in the fire was 79.
Authorities were urgently testing cladding fixed to scores of high-rise towers across Britain in the wake of the blaze, which is believed to have spread so rapidly because of flammable external panels.
Cladding on 120 different tower blocks has failed fire tests in the wake of a blaze that killed 79 people in London, showing a widespread breach of British building regulations over previous decades, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday.
May said that the cladding — panels put up on the outside of buildings to improve their aesthetics and energy efficiency — was not compliant with regulations. The manufacturer has since halted sales of the panels.
May said the test failures showed that there was a wider fire safety issue that was the result of failures over many decades.
“As we have seen from the number of buildings where the cladding has failed the combustibility test ... this is a much wider issue,” May said.
“It’s an issue that has been continuing for many years, for decades, in terms of cladding being put up in buildings. There are real questions, as to how this has happened, why it’s happened and how we can ensure that it doesn’t happen in the future.” May clashed with opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who criticised cuts to local government and fire service budgets.
