ORLANDO, Fla. — Survivors and family members of the victims killed in the Pulse nightclub massacre nine years ago on Wednesday received their first chance to walk through the long-shuttered, LGBTQ+ friendly Florida venue before it’s razed and replaced with a permanent memorial.

In small groups over four days, the invitees planned to spend a half hour inside the space where Omar Mateen opened fire during a Latin night celebration on June 12, 2016, leaving 49 dead and 53 wounded. Mateen, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, was killed after a three-hour standoff with police.

At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The death toll was surpassed the following year when 58 people were killed and more than 850 were injured among a crowd of 22,000 at a country music festival in Las Vegas.

The city of Orlando, which purchased the Pulse property in 2023 for $2 million, plans to build a $12 million permanent memorial that will open in 2027. Those efforts follow a multiyear attempt by a private foundation run by the club’s former owner to build a larger project; however, it fizzled. The existing structure will be demolished later this year.

“None of us thought that it would take nine years to get to this point, and we can’t go back and relitigate all of the failures along the way that have happened,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said two weeks ago when county commissioners pledged $5 million to support the city’s plan. “But what we can do is control how we move forward together.”

The opportunity to go inside the nightclub comes on the ninth anniversary of the mass shooting. Outside, oversize photos of the victims, rainbow-colored flags and flowers have hung on fences in a makeshift memorial, and the site has attracted visitors from around the globe. But very few people other than investigators have been inside the structure.

Around 250 survivors and family members of those killed have responded to the city’s invitation to walk through the nightclub this week. Family members of those killed can visit the site with up to six people in their group, and each survivor can bring along one person. The club has been cleaned, and lighting has been installed ahead of the walk-throughs.

The invitees are being given the chance to ask FBI agents who investigated the massacre about what happened. They won’t be allowed to take photos or video inside.

Brandon Wolf, who hid in a bathroom as the gunman opened fire, said he wouldn’t visit, primarily because he now lives in Washington. He said he wanted to remember Pulse as it was before.

“I will say that the site of the tragedy is where I feel closest to the people who were stolen from me,” said Wolf, who is now national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. “For survivors, the last time they were in that space was the worst night possible. It will be really hard to be in that space again.”

Mental health counselors planned to be on hand to talk to building visitors.

Survivors and family members had hoped a permanent memorial would be in place by now. Barbara and Rosario Poma and business owner Michael Panaggio previously owned the property, and Barbara Poma was the executive director of the onePulse Foundation — the nonprofit that had been leading efforts to build a memorial and museum. She stepped down as executive director in 2022 and then left the organization in 2023 amid criticism that she wanted to sell the property rather than donate it. There were also complaints about the lack of progress despite millions of dollars being raised. The onePulse Foundation disbanded in 2023.

The original project, unveiled in 2019 by the foundation, called for construction of a museum and permanent memorial that would cost $45 million. That estimate eventually soared to $100 million. The city of Orlando has since outlined a more modest proposal and scrapped plans for a museum.

“The building may come down, and we may finally get a permanent memorial, but that doesn’t change the fact that this community has been scarred for life,” Wolf said. “There are people inside the community who still need and will continue to need support and resources.”

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LONDON — The U.K. government has announced plans to dismantle the remains of London’s Grenfell Tower, almost eight years after the deadliest fire in Britain since World War II swept through the apartment building and killed 72 people.

Some of those who lost loved ones in the fire that broke out in the early morning of June 14, 2017, have criticized the decision because they wanted to preserve the building’s charred skeleton as a monument to those who died.

But the government said it would be unsafe to leave the structurally unsound hulk in place. While acknowledging different points of view, the government in essence sided with those who have argued that redeveloping the site would help the community heal by removing the remains of the 24-story tower, which looms over the surrounding neighborhood as a constant reminder of the tragedy.

“Grenfell Tower will be carefully taken down to the ground,” the government stated. Materials will be returned to the site so they can become part of a memorial that will be designed by an independent commission.

Grenfell Tower has become a symbol of government failure, corporate greed and inequality since the fire, which triggered an overhaul of building regulations across the country. Residents of the public housing project in North Kensington, a low-income neighborhood that is part of one of Britain’s wealthiest boroughs, say their safety concerns were repeatedly ignored by local government.

A public inquiry concluded that decades of failures by government, regulators and industry turned the building into a “death trap.”

The investigation found no “single cause” of the tragedy, but said a combination of dishonest companies, weak regulation and complacent government authorities resulted in the building being remodeled with combustible exterior cladding that allowed a small refrigerator fire to spread rapidly, trapping dozens of residents in their homes.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who also heads the government’s housing and local government ministry, conducted a series of meetings with survivors and family members before deciding what to do with Grenfell, the government said. She met with them again on Feb. 5 to give them advance notice of the decision that was announced two days later.

Grenfell United, which represents some of the bereaved, said it appeared that none of those who attended the Feb. 5 meeting supported the government’s decision.

“Ignoring the voices of bereaved on the future of our loved ones’ grave site is disgraceful and unforgivable,” the group stated.

But Grenfell Next of Kin, a separate group for survivors of the fire, said the decision was “very sensitive and difficult” and its members “understand the hard facts around safety.”

To allow crews to dismantle Grenfell sensitively, the government is budgeting for a project lasting around two years. The work won’t begin until after the eighth anniversary of the disaster in June.

But the statement also made clear that there was little room for further discussion.

The tower was significantly damaged by the fire and has remained stable only because of additional props put in place to preserve it, according to the government.

“The condition of the building will continue to worsen over time,” the government stated. “Engineers also advise it is not practicable to retain many of the floors of the building in place as part of a memorial that must last in perpetuity.”

Equity for all the bereaved families also played a role.

“Taking the engineering advice into account, the Deputy Prime Minister concluded that it would not be fair to keep some floors of the building that are significant to some families, whilst not being able to do so for others and knowing that, for some, this would be deeply upsetting,” the government stated.

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