The public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire will open with individual portraits of and tributes to the 71 victims of the blaze, it has been revealed.

At a preparatory hearing before the main evidence sessions, relatives and friends were told they could “memorialise their loved ones in any way they think best”.

Richard Millett QC, the lead counsel for the inquiry, said opening the public hearing with individual testimonials would mean that, however technical the proceedings become, “we will never lose sight of who these inquiries are for and why we are doing it”.

The tributes will be delivered as audio recordings, statements or in other formats. They are scheduled to begin on 21 May and could run for up to two weeks.



Leslie Thomas QC, representing relatives, said the pen portraits of the victims should be treated as “testimonials to the dead”. They would be “a sketch of who they were, where they lived, their contribution to the tower and local community”, he explained.

The process would help put the evidence into its proper context, Thomas told the inquiry chair, Sir Martin Moore-Bick. “This is so that you know the people being referred to, so that they are not just another number, another statistic.”

Millett said that despite investigating 150 alternative locations, most of them close to the site of the fire in north Kensington, west London, the inquiry’s preferred site remained Holborn Bars in central London, near to barristers’ chambers and many law firms.

Bereaved survivors and residents – BSRs as they are known to the inquiry – and core participants will be paid expenses for their travel into central London and a subsistence allowance.

The inquiry has so far received 330,000 documents relating to the fire and is expecting ultimately to consider as many as 400,000.

The inquiry has access to 560 recordings of emergency 999 calls on the night of the fire. Photograph: David Mirzoeff/PA

There is some tension between the inquiry and the Metropolitan police investigation into possible criminal offences related to the fire. The police initially objected to the release of seven statements from firefighters who fought the blaze on 14 June 2017.

Senior detectives eventually accepted assurances from Moore-Bick that failing to disclose the material would impede the inquiry.

There are 560 audio recordings of emergency 999 calls made on the night. “The material is in some cases distressing,” Millett said. “However, the subject of the inquiry is a mass fatality … and the evidence cannot be sanitised.”

There was concern that the inquiry is not considering sufficiently the toxicity of smoke. “We know that at least five individuals have been treated at King’s College hospital for cyanide poisoning,” Michael Mansfield QC said. “They may be just the tip of an iceberg.”

Expert reports on key aspects of the fire commissioned by the inquiry are due to be sent out confidentially to core participants in the coming weeks. Two more reports, on the role of gas supplies to the 24-storey tower and whether water pressure was sufficient to fight the fire, are also under way.

There has been speculation that the initial fire was caused by a power surge igniting electrical equipment. Millett said: “As the evidence currently stands, there’s nothing to suggest that any electrical surge played a causative role [in the fire].”

The Met police has been allowing relatives and survivors, as well as experts, to go back into the tower, although a lawyer for the police stressed it remains a crime scene.

Sam Stein QC, for relatives, said there should be input from Grenfell victims into the Hackitt report, which is investigating building regulations. Stephanie Barwise QC told the inquiry that assessing compliance with regulations should include building designs and not be left to the second phase of the inquiry.



Pete Weatherby QC, also representing core participants, said lawyers had so far received 1,962 documents from the inquiry – mostly pictures of the inside of the charred building. Without faster disclosure of key material, he said, his clients would not be able to participate effectively in the inquiry.



The inquiry hearing was suspended shortly before lunch due to a fire alarm. Weatherby said he was conscious of how distressing the fire alarm would be for the survivors and bereaved.

When proceedings resumed, Moore-Bick apologised for the interruption, which he said must have been “distressing if not frightening” for some. If the alarm were to sound again, he said, he would rise immediately and everyone would leave.