Show Me the Bodies Quotes

“Over the years, they have listened as the corporations and public bodies responsible have given carefully constructed statements, full of vapid expressions of sympathy and detailed explanations of why their company is not to blame for what happened at the tower. The inquiry’s own barrister has described the attitudes as ‘a merry-go-round of buck passing’.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“And despite everything we have seen and all the suffering at Grenfell Tower, it remains entirely possible that we will once more witness the terrifying sight of a building being consumed by fire with people trapped inside. Government officials are alleged to have said ‘show me the bodies’. They have seen them now, and still we have not changed.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“The local council, RBKC, was legally required to respond to the disaster by setting up ‘rest centres’ for those displaced and arranging emergency housing for them to move into. The British Red Cross were on the ground, and some local churches, youth centres and mosques had opened their doors. But the council were not there. Its staff were not deployed to the scene, and at the town hall the emergency response team struggled to find the keys needed to open up their major incident room.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“Before Grenfell, we had no Plan B or Plan C. All our chips were stacked on ‘stay put’, due to a hubristic conviction that UK buildings were too good to fail. This gamble was lost, and those who died at Grenfell were the ones who paid the price.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“at Grenfell Tower thirty-seven of the occupants present when the fire broke out had a disability which meant they could not evacuate unaided. By the next day, fifteen of them had died – unable to escape the burning building with no plans in place for them to do so. The fire would go on to be branded ‘a landmark act of discrimination’ against the disabled and vulnerable by lawyers acting for the bereaved and survivors15”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“Even if the probability of an out-of-control fire in a high-rise was low, risk is not just about probability. It’s also about consequence. ‘[If] the consequences are massive, you cannot ignore the potential of the consequences even if the probability is small,’ he said.5”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“The inadequacy of the fire doors was only one problem. Even a defective fire door will provide a degree of protection if it is closed. At Grenfell, many were open. Residents had repeatedly warned the TMO and council about this.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“Britain is one of only two countries in the world (along with South Korea) not to require a second staircase in any buildings. In the United States and Ireland, one must be provided for all blocks four storeys or higher. In Canada it applies to any blocks of flats with two storeys or more. We are almost alone in the world in believing our tall buildings do not need a second stair. This has remained so even after Grenfell.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“The family phoned 999 again at 2.27 a.m., warning that the fire was right outside their window and they were afraid they would die. This message was radioed over to the command unit outside the tower, but it is not clear what happened to it. Further calls were made at 3.09 a.m. and 3.18 a.m., and the family were told to ‘make a run for it’ but could not leave due to the smoke. ‘I could have got out a long time ago, we could have, but they said, “Stay in the flat, stay in the flat,”’ said the father in this call. The family was never reached. All five of them died. It is estimated they could have fled up until 2.45 a.m. and survived.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“Internally, Kingspan batted away queries from those who were concerned it might not be suitable. ‘I think [they] are getting me confused with someone who gives a damn. I’m trying to think of a way out of this one, imagine a fire running up the tower!!!!!!!!!!!!’, wrote Mr Heath internally in response to one query.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“In 2016, two Kingspan employees discussed this testing via text: ‘Doesn’t actually get Class 0 when we test the whole product tho. LOL!’ ‘WHAT. We lied?’ his colleague replied. ‘All we do is lie in here,’ the first replied.*”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“when it comes to life safety, it really shouldn’t be the case that the people writing the standards are the ones selling the products.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“It had its testing from 2004 which demonstrated the risks, and all the warnings from senior members of the company. But corporate interest took precedence over human morality. Corporations will act in the interests of profit. When law no longer holds them to account, we have no choice but to wait for the consequences.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“I was in distress. I remember a Muslim man, a stranger, offering me comfort, putting his arm around me and asking if I wanted to go to his house. I could not stop crying.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“but we are not building like we used to, we are covering them with all these combustible materials that would go up like a horror movie”, they would say “well it hasn’t happened yet”.’ He recalls hearing the phrase ‘show me the bodies’ on more than one occasion.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“The risk of using polyethylene-cored ACM cladding, which would become so devastatingly apparent sixteen years later, was revealed in British-state funded testing in the summer of 2001.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“In these two disasters, we have the seeds of the Grenfell Tower fire. An out of control construction sector, a government unwilling to hear the truth about the risks, regulations failing to keep up with technology and the increasing use of combustible plastic as a building material.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“Prejudice against social housing residents appears to have actively undermined the safety features of the building.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

“Grenfell was the result of a series of choices, the sum of state neglect and corporate wrongdoing across a variety of areas, the epicentre of myriad defects in our social fabric.”
― Peter Apps, Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen