Grenfell Tower Fire Death Toll Will Remain At Around 80, Police Say

The death toll of the Grenfell Tower fire will likely remain at around 80, police have said, in contrast to expectations it would continue to rise.

The number of people suspected to have died has steadily risen since the blaze gutted the 24-storey tower on June 14. People feared as many as 150 were dead.

The Metropolitan Police have said they believe around 80 is the figure.

A total of 350 people lived in the tower and 255 survived while 14 were not there at the time, police believe.

One resident said the authorities should explain how they established these figures

Earlier, authorities had pleaded with people who grew angry at the gradual revisions to the death toll, saying it reflected the difficult process of establishing who had died.

Joe Delaney, from the Grenfell Action Group, told HuffPost UK: “We’re all weary with cynicism.

“I would like them to publish their methodology in order to reassure residents that these figures are correct and there hasn’t been a cover up.

“Did they for example interrogate mobile phone companies to see how many phones were pinging in that area around that time and did they cross reference that information with the survivors?

“Did they check with credit reference agencies to see how many people were registered there?”

On Monday, police denied reports that hundreds of people were still missing.

Police said their investigation was the biggest probe in the force’s history that did not relate to terrorism.

Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said: “This fire should not have happened and as a result of that fire a large number of people have lost their lives.”

Lily Allen, who previously said the gradual revisions to the death toll and heard 150 people had died, retweeted a tweet questioning the estimate of people in the tower.

Allen stuck to her guns, saying she did not believe the figures, despite the fact she was accused of failing to see “the difference between a professional method of accounting for deaths and your irrational demand for guesswork”.

Last week, Met Police Commander Stuart Cundy said “87 recoveries” had been made but stressed, given the scale of devastation in the building, this did not mean 87 bodies were found.

A total of 32 people have been formally identified.

Cundy said the search of the building “will take us many months, but we will search each and every flat”.