LONDON (AP) 鈥� The U.K. government on Friday announced plans to dismantle the remains of London鈥檚 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.
Some of those who lost loved ones in that broke out in the early morning hours of June 14, 2017, have criticized the decision because they wanted to preserve the building鈥檚 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-story building, which looms over the North Kensington neighborhood in west London, providing a constant reminder of the tragedy.
鈥淕renfell Tower will be carefully taken down to the ground,鈥� the government said in a statement.
Doing so is a process that will take around two years in order to do so sensitively. No changes are set to be made before the eighth anniversary of the disaster in June.
But the government statement also made clear that there was little room for further discussion, despite the wishes of some in the community to have it remain standing.
U.K. authorities said that the tower was significantly damaged and remained stable only because of additional props put in place to protect it.
鈥淭he condition of the building will continue to worsen over time,鈥� the statement said. 鈥滶ngineers also advise it is not practicable to retain many of the floors of the building in place as part of a memorial that must last in perpetuity.鈥�
Equity to all the families also played a role.
"Taking the engineering advice into account the Deputy Prime Minister (Angela Rayner) concluded that it would not be fair to keep some floors of the building that are significant to some families, whilst not being able to do so for others and knowing that, for some, this would be deeply upsetting,'' the statement said.
A concluded that decades of failures by government, regulators and industry turned the building into a 鈥渄eath trap.鈥�
found no 鈥渟ingle cause鈥� of the tragedy, but said a combination of dishonest companies, weak regulation and complacent government authorities resulted in the building being remodeled with combustible exterior cladding that that allowed a small refrigerator fire to spread rapidly, trapping dozens of residents in their homes.
Danica Kirka, The Associated Press
