Six months on, Grenfell fire survivors weep at London memorial
London — Survivors of a blaze that killed 71 people six months ago in the Grenfell Tower social housing block in west London wept during a multifaith memorial service at St Paul’s Cathedral on Thursday attended by members of the royal family. Bereaved relatives held pictures of their loved ones as they commemorated Britain’s deadliest fire since the Second World War, a tragedy that has profoundly shocked the nation. Fire broke out in the middle of the night on June 14 and quickly gutted the 24-storey building, which was home to a multi-ethnic community living in a poor area within one of London’s richest boroughs, Kensington and Chelsea. The disaster highlighted the area’s extreme disparities in living conditions between rich and poor and fuelled a debate over why safety concerns voiced by tower residents before the fire had been ignored. The service reflected the multicultural character of the Grenfell community, with Christian and Muslim prayers and music from Middle Eastern, Cari...
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