Everyone ‘accounted for’ in Dagenham fire at building with ‘known’ safety issues

All people have been “accounted for” after a fire engulfed a multi-storey building in Dagenham, east London, with “known” safety issues, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) has said.

More than 80 people were evacuated and two were taken to hospital after the fire broke out in the building that is used for residential and commercial purposes, the fire service said.

The LFB said it was called to the blaze in Freshwater Road at 2.44am on Monday where 20 people were rescued following a “significant search-and-rescue operation” as 45 engines and around 225 firefighters responded to the incident.

The fire service said the blaze engulfed the whole building, including scaffolding surrounding the property and the roof.

According to the LFB, the London Ambulance Service treated four people at the scene.

The property was undergoing “remedial” work to remove and replace “non-compliant cladding” on the fifth and sixth floors containing flats, according to a planning application document.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) have said the incident exposed the “‘national scandal’ of flammable cladding and deregulation in the building industry”.

The FBU highlighted that the fire at the tower block comes a week before the publication of the final report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

An investigation into the fire has begun, during which questions around the role of cladding will “form part” of the probe, the LFB’s Assistant Commissioner Patrick Goulbourne said.

When asked by reporters at the scene “how big a part did cladding play” in the fire, and how close the incident was to a “bigger disaster”, Mr Goulbourne said: “What I wouldn’t want to do is pre-empt an investigation.

“This was a very, very dynamic incident, and clearly it’s going to require a very complex investigation, not only to get to its cause, but to get to an understanding of the fire spread – so it’s it’s too early at this time to be able to give any detail on that, but that will form part of our investigation in the coming days.”

London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe said: “The building has a number of fire safety issues known to London Fire Brigade.

“A full simultaneous evacuation of the building was immediately carried out and a significant search and rescue operation took place.

“I am pleased to confirm that everyone has been accounted for.

A resident of the building said the incident felt like “a nightmare” and that she felt “frightened to be on the street starting from zero”.

Irina Vasile, 46, a healthcare assistant who lived on the second floor, said she was woken by her partner around 3am telling her there was smoke.

Speaking outside the Becontree Heath Leisure Centre where the residents have been relocated, she told reporters: “(There was) such a dense smoke all over the apartment. When we wanted to open the window, another smoke hit our face, on the throat and the eyes.”

Ms Vasile said she was spotted by firefighters after shouting for help and calling 999.

She said: “We didn’t grab nothing – we lost everything. The firemen bring us outside, and while I came outside, I’ve seen a big fire come from the building on the ground floor, and when we went further, I’ve seen another big fire on the top.”

The resident said she did not hear a fire alarm go off during the evacuation.

She added: “My partner is devastated as well. We try to encourage one another because we lost everything. We are scared, frightened to be on the street starting from zero.”

Another resident described the incident as “very terrible” and said he was coughing up “black“ from the smoke.

Sam Ogbeide, who lives on the fourth floor, told reporters: “I opened my main door, smoke was coming in from the window – I live at the back. I saw it (the fire). Very terrible, very terrible.”

Mr Ogbeide said it was very busy in the building’s stairwell with fellow residents who “didn’t bring anything” when evacuating, with some still “naked”.

He said: “I’ve never experienced something like this in my life. Everything is gone. I don’t know what to do.”

Asked if he felt OK, the resident added: “I’m not feeling OK. All my mouth is bitter because I feel the smoke in me.

“When I cough, you see the black.”

Mr Ogbeide later told the PA news agency he did not see any water sprinklers in the building, but did hear a fire alarm.

Another witness living near the building said he heard people “screaming” as the incident unfolded.

Ahmed, 44, of Kemp Road, which is a few hundred yards from the property, told PA: “When I woke up, I saw the fire engines, the helicopters and obviously the smoke everywhere.

“People were screaming.”

In a statement about the fire on Monday, Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, criticised MPs for putting the “interests of big business above human life” by repeatedly ignoring warnings related to “deregulation in the building sector” and building cladding.

He said: “Hundreds of thousands of people continue to live in buildings like it, with various failings in fire safety. This is a national scandal.

“For decades, the FBU has warned of the risks of deregulation in the building sector.

“Politicians have put the interests of big business above human life.

“As we saw at Grenfell Tower, this can have horrific and tragic consequences.

“Time and time again, these warnings have been ignored by public authorities and by central government.”

Emmanuelle Perraud, 54, a civil servant who lives on the third floor of the block in Dagenham, said she was “angry and concerned” about the building’s cladding after escaping the fire with her 17-year-old daughter and 56-year-old sister.

She told Mail Online: “I’m angry and concerned that the cladding hadn’t been removed faster because the plans were in place to do so last summer and it’s taken nearly nine months for them to start taking it down as we’ve had scaffolding around the building since January.

“The residents complained about it being there because we all remember what happened with Grenfell Tower.

“Whether it was a factor in this fire, we don’t know yet, but it should’ve been removed long ago.”

The British Red Cross said a team of the charity’s volunteers are providing “emotional support” to evacuated residents at a local rest centre.

New drones were deployed to tackle the blaze, along with 210ft (64m) and 105ft (32m) turntable ladders that were used as vantage points to assess the scene and to douse the flames with water from above, he added. A major incident was declared by the LFB which was stood down at 11.03am

Crews will remain at the scene on Tuesday to carry out “further operations”, he added.

The LFB originally stated that more than 100 people had been evacuated and later updated the figure to more than 80.