LONDON — A 24-story concrete tombstone dominates the skyline of suburban west London.

Grenfell Tower is the charred high-rise apartment block where Britain’s deadliest domestic fire since World War II claimed the lives of 72 men, women and children one year ago Thursday.

Until last month, when the building was finally covered by white sheeting, commuters on passing Tube subway trains could still see into it.

The scorched public-housing block is just one of the ways that residents, such as Rahel Sherlock, are forced to relive the disaster every day.

She has tried to forget the night that she walked out of her nearby apartment and saw Grenfell engulfed in flames.

As the fire rose higher and black smoke billowed into the night sky, she stood outside watching until 5:30 a.m. when she returned home and watched the news unfold on her television.

A subway train passes through a station near the burned-out shell of Grenfell Tower in May. Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP - Getty Images

“It’s like an unhealed wound, it’s sore and painful,” said Sherlock, who had four close friends living in the tower. “Every time I leave the house, I come back and have to face it again.”

The disaster is now the subject of a public inquiry into what started the fire, how it spread so quickly, and why so many people died. (A separate police investigation could result in criminal charges.)

The inquiry has already heard emotional stories from victims' families about the horrific events of June 14, 2017, as well as extracts from desperate calls to first responders and relatives.

Mohamed Amied Neda, 57, who lived on the top floor, is believed to have jumped from the building. His final recorded words were in a voicemail left for family members as the fire spread. “Goodbye, we are leaving this world now, goodbye. I hope I haven’t disappointed you. Goodbye to all,” he said.

Five-year-old Isaac Paulos died after his family followed the fire department's early advice to remain inside the building.

His father, Paulos Tekle, said: “I want answers. If I had not listened to the fire brigade, my son would have likely been alive today.”

Raymond “Moses” Bernard sheltered six people in his top-floor apartment. His neighbors were found on his bed, while the 63-year-old's remains were nearby on the floor.

“This shows the respect he gave to those who lost their lives that night and we know that he would have given comfort to each of them before they took their last breaths and departed this world," his sister Bernadette Bernard told the inquiry.

Completed in 1974, Grenfell Tower was an apartment building owned by the west London borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It was refurbished between 2012 and 2016, and safety experts have told the inquiry that combustible external cladding fitted during that time was a factor in the fire’s rapid spread.

At the inquiry, a lawyer representing some of the survivors said that the refurbishment had turned the tower into a "death trap."

ITV News poll: 87% of Grenfell survivors and relatives have 'no faith in the government' https://t.co/gZ26Z2dt2t pic.twitter.com/t1L7uiBiIz — ITV London (@itvlondon) June 13, 2018

Anger at the circumstances of the fire is so widespread in Britain that Grenfell is synonymous with social injustice.

The length of time taken to rehouse survivors and neighbors displaced from adjacent damaged homes — 15 households are still in hotels or staying with friends, local officials say — has dogged the government of Prime Minister Theresa May. She apologized Tuesday for her initial response to the fire.

This part of London is marked by two extremes. Multimillion dollar private residences stand just blocks away from public housing, home to around 25 percent of area households, according to the 2011 census.

The fire highlighted the area’s inequalities and has provoked a sense of communal grief.

Gaby Doherty lives with her family across from the tower, and her husband, a Church of England minister, was the one of the first on the scene after the blaze broke out.

"It feels like we’re in it together, we’ve gone through this awful shared experience," said Doherty, who wrote the new book, “Grenfell Hope: Ravaged by Fire but Not Destroyed.”

She added, "There is a great power in connection and in unity between us."