The inferno that tore through a residential block in Antwerp has left at least a dozen dead and an entire continent questioning the adequacy of fire safety regulations. The British government has joined the chorus of condemnation, with the Foreign Secretary calling the tragedy “a stark reminder of the cost of lax oversight.” But for the families who lost their homes, their livelihoods, their loved ones, no amount of political hand-wringing will bring back what was taken.
The blaze broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning in a low-rise apartment building in the city’s northern district. Residents spoke of smoke alarms that failed to sound and exit doors that could not be opened. Survivors described a scramble through corridors filled with toxic fumes, while firefighters battled flames that spread with terrifying speed across the building’s external cladding.
As investigators sift through the charred remains, the parallels with Grenfell Tower are impossible to ignore. That tragedy, which claimed 72 lives in London in 2017, exposed the lethal combination of cheap materials and weak enforcement. Yet six years on, campaigners warn that the same risks persist across the European Union.
“The cladding on that building was the same sort of stuff we ripped out after Grenfell,” said Margaret Walsh, a fire safety campaigner from Manchester. “It’s cheaper to install but it burns like a torch. The EU has had time to tighten its rules, but it hasn’t. Now we have more bodies.”
The European Commission has defended its track record, pointing to a revised Construction Products Regulation passed last year. But critics argue that the new rules lack mandatory testing for fire resistance and fail to impose liability on manufacturers when products fail. Meanwhile, member states are left to enforce standards with varying degrees of rigour. In Belgium, fire safety inspections have been cut by a fifth over the past decade, according to union figures.
For the working-class families of Antwerp, this is not an abstract policy debate. The building that burned housed many immigrant families and low-wage workers, people priced out of the city’s more expensive districts. They paid rent to a private landlord who had installed cheap cladding, they said, to cut costs.
“I’d been complaining about the fire doors for months,” said Ahmed Karim, 34, who escaped with his wife and two children but lost everything else. “The landlord said he would fix them but he never did. The local council said it wasn’t their responsibility. Now look.”
The tragedy has reignited calls for a European-wide fire safety directive that would compel member states to enforce uniform standards, including mandatory sprinkler systems in all new high-rise buildings. The British government, despite its departure from the EU, has signalled support for such measures in a show of solidarity.
“We cannot lecture other nations if we haven’t got our own house in order,” said a Home Office spokesperson. “We are still working through the thousands of buildings in England that have dangerous cladding. The pace of remediation is shameful.”
Indeed, in the North West, where I’ve spent much of my career, residents of tower blocks in Salford and Liverpool are still waiting for the safety works promised years ago. Desperate tenants have formed action groups, but landlords drag their feet and government funds run dry.
“Every time there’s a fire, politicians make promises,” said Denise O’Connell, a union representative for housing workers in Manchester. “But the system is broken. Landlords prioritise profit over safety. Workers are overstretched. And ordinary people pay the price in grief and trauma.”
In Antwerp, the flags fly at half-mast and the flags fly at half-mast and the prayers are said. But for those left behind, the anguish is permanent. A mother lost two of her children, a young father lost his wife. They clutch photos in the makeshift memorial, looking for answers that won’t come.
“The building had two fire exits,” said survivor Eva Torres, her voice trembling. “Only one was unlocked. That door could have saved them.”
Until the EU forces real change, until inspections are properly funded, until cheap cladding is banned outright, more doors will remain locked. More lives will be lost. And the world will mourn, then move on.
We cannot let that happen.
