Man 'blameless' over Grenfell Tower blaze

The man in whose apartment a huge fire broke out, killing 71 people in a London tower block a year ago, was not to blame for the disaster but has been subjected to "sleazy accusations" and innuendo, his lawyer told a public inquiry.

Behailu Kebede lived in apartment 16 on the fourth floor of Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey block in west London where the fire started.

On Wednesday, the lawyer for Kebede, who is originally from Ethiopia, called for the inquiry to clear him of any responsibility for the blaze, Britain's deadliest on domestic premises since World War II which raised questions about UK social housing, building regulations and fire safety rules.

"Mr Kebede hopes that having heard all the evidence, the inquiry will make a clear and unequivocal statement that Mr Kebede was absolutely blameless for the outbreak of the fire, its spread and its fatal consequences," lawyer Rajiv Menon said.

"If the inquiry does not explicitly exonerate Mr Kebede all the sleazy accusations and hurtful innuendo, all the racist assumptions and ignorance about Mr Kebede that currently prevail will continue unabated."

Menon said shortly before 1am on June 14 last year, Kebede, who had lived in the block for about 25 years, was woken by his smoke alarm. He opened his kitchen door to see smoke coming from behind his Hotpoint fridge freezer, which he had bought new five years earlier.

He called the emergency services before alerting his neighbours by banging on their doors and shouting "fire". Menon said Kebede had left without any clothes or possessions and that claims he had packed a suitcase before raising the alarm were a nasty lie.

Completed in 1974, Grenfell Tower was owned by the local authority of one of London's richest boroughs, Kensington and Chelsea. It was refurbished between 2012 and 2016, and fire safety experts have told the inquiry that several aspects of those recent works had made the tower unsafe.

In particular, the building was enveloped in a combustible cladding which ignited and the flames raced to the top of the building in minutes.