17 June 2020

Failing to reopen schools is the most catastrophic decision the government has made so far

Ministers’ failures will damage pupils’ educational performance and the economic health of the country.

A classroom is seen, which has been rearranged with seating separated by 2m to create an environment safe from Coronavirus for pupils and teachers at Slaithwaite C of E Junior and Infant School in Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield, northern England on May 22, 2020, as lockdown measures are eased during the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by OLI SCARFF / AFP) (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)

When did the Grenfell Tower disaster start? The fire began a little after midnight on 14 June 2017, with an electrical fault in a fridge-freezer on the fourth floor. But the disaster was already under way. Kitchen fires are not rare events, so the block had been built to contain any conflagration within a single flat.

Residents had been told, both on the night itself and over many years, that in the event of a blaze, they should stay in their flats, where they would be safe. But somewhere between the tower’s completion in 1974 and its destruction in 2017, the building became a firetrap: advice intended to protect residents became lethal. Thanks to the decorative cladding installed during the block’s renovation, a structure built to contain a fire, instead, spread it.