Grenfell Tower fire inquiry says U.S. company Arconic “deliberately concealed” dangers of building materials

London — The public inquiry into the deadly 2017 fire that engulfed Grenfell Tower, a high-rise public housing apartment building in central London, published its final report Wednesday on the disaster that killed 72 people. The blaze — London’s deadliest since World War II — was blamed on a litany of failures, from shoddy construction and materials to poor local management and inadequate fire safety standards.

Among the parties found to have played a role in the tragedy by the inquiry is the American company Arconic, which made and sold the building’s exterior cladding through a French subsidiary.

The report’s authors said the Pittsburgh-based company “deliberately concealed from the market the true extent of the danger of using” the materials that were added to Grenfell Tower during a renovation, “particularly on high-rise buildings.”

“By late 2007 Arconic had become aware that there was serious concern in the construction industry about the safety of ACM panels and had itself recognized the danger they posed,” the report says. “By the summer of 2011 it was well aware that Reynobond 55 PE in cassette form [the material used on Grenfell Tower] performed much worse in a fire and was considerably more dangerous than in riveted form. Nonetheless, it was determined to exploit what it saw as weak regulatory regimes in certain countries (including the UK) to sell Reynobond 55 PE in cassette form, including for use on residential buildings.”

In a statement to CBS News on Wednesday, Arconic said “we reject any claim that AAP [Arconic’s subsidiary, Arconic Architectural Products SAS] sold an unsafe product,” and insisted that it had “regularly conducted tests of its materials using third-party testing bodies.”

“Reports on these results were all publicly available, and AAP made these reports available to its customers,” the company said, adding that it “did not conceal information from or mislead any certification body, customer, or the public.”

Arconic said AAP had “acknowledged its role as one of the material suppliers involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower,” and that the company “respects the Inquiry process” and “cooperated fully with the work of the Inquiry and will continue to engage with further legal processes.”

“Together with other parties, AAP has made financial contributions to settlements for those affected, as well as to the restorative justice fund,” the company said. 

Ongoing inquiry

Earlier phases of the multi-year inquiry concluded that some of the companies that manufactured the materials used in the cladding on Grenfell Tower, including Arconic, continued to market their products as safe, despite some employees knowing they were flammable.

Emails shared with the inquiry appeared to show that some Arconic employees knew of the fire risk associated with the cladding used on Grenfell Tower, but that the company continued to sell it anyway.

When approached in 2021 about whether its employees knew about the fire risks associated with Arconic’s cladding, Arconic told CBS News it was “continuing to offer their full support to the authorities as the inquiry works through the complex questions presented. It is not appropriate for us to comment further while the Inquiry is ongoing and before all evidence has been presented in Phase Two.”

“These corporations are still operating as if nothing has happened,” Karim Mussilhy, whose uncle was killed in the fire, told CBS News in 2021.

In the wake of the deadly blaze, apartment buildings across the U.K. that were covered in the same or similar external cladding materials were found to be unsafe, leaving thousands of people trapped in dangerous homes and unable to sell because banks won’t provide new mortgages on the properties in question.

“People should be safe in their homes. People shouldn’t have to feel like they’re going to sleep and not knowing if they’re going to wake up or not,” Mussilhy said in 2021.

Victims still seeking justice

The Grenfell Inquiry launched with a first hearing on Sept.14, 2017. The families of some victims and survivors said they’ve been denied justice as it’s gone on.

“It’s meant criminal prosecutions couldn’t have happened,” said Nazanin Aghlani, whose mother Sakina Afrasehabi was killed in the fire. She told CBS News’ partner network BBC News that prosecutions should have happened before the public inquiry.

She said the inquiry had even given “all those people that should be facing criminal prosecutions” a platform “to tell their version of the story.” 

London’s Metropolitan Police said in May that no criminal prosecutions related to the Grenfell fire would begin until 2026, according to the BBC. The police were expected to make a statement later Wednesday.

“We’ve been waiting seven years to find out the facts, that are gonna be in black and white,” Nick Burton, who was rescued from the 19th floor of the tower, told the BBC, hoping the report would  “tell the truth about these corporations and their part that they played in the fire.”

“We need to know who is actually accountable, who actually made the decisions that led to this horror and who can actually be pinned down and charged,” Emma Dent Coad, a former member of parliament for London’s central Kensington district, told the BBC.