Over the following days, London felt numb. But then life resumed, at least for those of us who didn’t lose family, friends or a home. Politicians glibly apologised, a public inquiry was promised and Grenfell’s carcass was concealed. No one forgot about the fire, but many of us chose to ignore it.

Inside Housing’s Peter Apps, who had been aware of issues with cladding on tower blocks, did not ignore it. Instead, he embarked on a ‘personal’ mission to seek justice for the 72 people killed in the fire and expose the truth behind the tragedy.

His book is a powerful account of both the night of the fire and the decades-long neglect and greed that allowed it to happen. Apps juxtaposes residents’ accounts of the night with highly technical descriptions of the building’s cladding, insulation and even the make-up of the fridge that started the 60-hour fire. The detail is extraordinary. He traces the events of the night almost minute by minute and provides the interviews to back it up.

To explain the origins of Grenfell, Apps goes back to the 1968 explosion at Ronan Point tower block in Canning Town. It was the same story: ‘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.’

It’s a familiar tale of increasing deregulation and anti-red tape sentiment, buoyed by the privatisation of the Thatcher years, and the failings of countless governments to deal with this high-risk approach to social housing construction. Apps does not shy away from holding people to account. Brian Martin, a civil servant in charge of fire safety regulations in buildings, was alleged to have uttered, ‘Show me the bodies,’ in response to requests for tighter rules.

Apps highlights details like this that leave you in disbelief. There were people who knew a Grenfell-like disaster was imminent and did nothing to stop it. Then there were those who should have been able to mitigate it – like the London Fire Brigade – but were unequipped to do so.

These examples of institutional ineptitude and mismanagement are brutally contrasted with the stories of those living in the tower. Piecing together phone calls and personal accounts, Apps provides detailed narratives of the night, stories of survivors, emergency responders and those who died. The stories are harrowing. Gloria Trevisan, 26, called her parents in Italy from the 23rd floor. She stayed on the phone for 22 minutes while fire entered the apartment and she struggled to speak due to the smoke. According to her mother’s witness statement, Gloria ‘cut off the phone because she didn’t want me to hear her scream’. She died minutes later, next to her boyfriend, Marco.

It’s a long story of chaos, incompetence and a fundamental lack of empathy, but Apps remains positive: ‘We can at least glimpse the shadow of a better world.’

In the final chapter, he lists the names of the 72 people who died. ‘Each was loved. Each is missed, desperately, by those left behind. Each suffered unspeakably for the mistakes, greed and callousness of a system that turned their home into a death trap.’