Persistent Indifference to Fire Safety

Some questions are important. Who has power? Who has none? Or, to put it another way:

“How was it possible in 21st century London for a reinforced concrete building, itself structurally impervious to fire, to be turned into a death trap?”

This was the question posed by the seven-year long inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire.  This inquiry, while involving over 300 public hearings and 1,600 witness statements, is afraid to truly tackle the layers of culpability and policy decisions.

“There is no simple answer", declares the inquiry. And yet, it is a genre of disaster that we see thousandfold, increasing exponentially under global neoliberal shifts. Privatisation, deregulation, and dehumanisation all have an inevitable price—and inevitable martyrs. 

In this short narrative game, we juxtapose Grenfell with the Colectiv nightclub fire in Romania, which parallels not only the scale and shocking manner of death, but also these underlying causes and the delay and denial tactics of people, companies, and governments to elide accountability. 

Made by House on the Bailey.
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