Grenfell Tower death toll may not be known until end of year – police

Scotland Yard has warned it could take until the end of the year or longer to be sure how many people died in the Grenfell Tower disaster, as police raised the number of people presumed dead to 80.

Police warned that the death toll could rise further and said there were 23 flats in the tower where they had not been able to trace anyone alive.

The detective leading the criminal investigation added it had identified 60 firms involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, up from 12 last week, and that number is expected to grow.

The briefing came amid continued claims that the real death toll is far higher than the official count, which now stands at 80 dead.

DCS Fiona McCormack, said: “We are many months from being able to provide a number that we believe accurately represents the total loss of life inside Grenfell Tower.

“Only after we have completed the search and recovery operation, which will take until the end of the year, and then months afterwards, when experts have carried out the identification process, will we be in a position to tell you who has died.”

She said police had checked every official record they could find and had even checked delivery records from fast food outlets to get an accurate idea of who had been inside.

“I do not want there to be any hidden victims of this tragedy,” McCormack said. “What I will only work on is facts, these are families we are dealing with, they are numbers to people, but they are not to me, they are victims to me and that is really essential.”

But she added that the intense heat from the fire meant some people may never be identified, and comprehensive searches through the debris on all the floors was expected to take to the end of the year or beyond, with the identification process taking even longer: “The tragic reality is that due to the intense heat of the fire there are some people whom we may never identify.”

A list provided to police of who lived in the fire-ravaged tower, had proved not to be accurate, police said.

Thus the efforts to establish who is missing are concentrated on talking to friends, families and neighbours of those in Grenfell Tower, McCormack said. Detectives have concluded there is no accurate list available of those inside when the fire broke out and then ripped through the 24-floor block.

Police are struggling to get across to the public the complexity of the operation they face, the horrors inside as they search through burnt and charred debris, unable to tell what it was before it was destroyed by fire.

McCormack said: “Only after we have completed the search and recovery operation, which will take until the end of the year, and then months afterwards, when experts have carried out the identification process, will we be in a position to tell you who has died.”

She added: “What we know is that it would be impossible for anyone to produce a list to show exactly who was at Grenfell Tower that night, that includes the people who were living there or who were visiting.”

McCormack said there was such devastation inside, some victims may never be recovered: “We are drawing on expert advice from a range of international specialists such as anthropologists and odontologists – the work to identify people will be ongoing for many months to come. But tragically, we are preparing families and loved ones for the fact we may never recover the remains of their loved ones.”

Police said there were 129 flats in the block. There are survivors from 106 of these flats, whom police have spoken to about who lived there and who may have been visiting. No survivors have yet been found from 23 flats.

A total of 250 officers are working on the investigation with specialists in anthropology and dental records called in to assist. The criminal investigation will seek to establish if charges can brought against those involved in renovating the building, including manslaughter, McCormack said.

The investigation is the largest the Met has conducted outside of a counter terrorism investigation and Commander Stuart Cundy said: “We are investigating this as we would any major crime.”

They will then try to work out which firms or individuals will be the focus of the criminal inquiry and then which laws apply.

McCormack said that there had been no need so far to carry out raids on companies involved in the refurbishment as they were handing over documentation to detectives. Interviews as part of the Met investigation are expected soon.