The UK government on Friday announced plans to dismantle the remains of London’s Grenfell Tower, almost eight years after the deadliest fire in Britain since World War II swept through the high-rise apartment building, killing 72 people.
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Some of those who lost loved ones in the fire that broke out in the early morning hours of June 14, 2017, have criticised the decision because they wanted to preserve the building’s charred skeleton as a monument to those who died.
But the government said that redeveloping the site would help the community heal by removing the remains of the 24-storey building, which looms over the North Kensington neighbourhood in west London, providing a constant reminder of the tragedy.
“Grenfell Tower will be carefully taken down to the ground,″ the government said in a statement.
A public inquiry into the disaster concluded that decades of failures by government, regulators and industry turned the building into a “death trap”.
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