The Fire Brigades Union has said that a high-rise fire in Dagenham exposes the “national scandal” of flammable cladding and deregulation in the building industry.
A fire broke out in a tower block on Freshwater Road in Dagenham, east London, in the early hours of Monday morning. Hundreds of firefighters have attended and the London Fire Brigade declared a major incident. Two people have been taken to hospital.
According to the London Fire Brigade, the building had “non-compliant” cladding on it, and had been the subject of a fire enforcement notice in 2023.
The incident comes just one week before the publication of the final report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
Image: London Fire Brigade
Matt Wrack, Fire Brigades Union general secretary, said: “Hundreds of firefighters have responded to a high-rise fire in Dagenham today, and have carried out rescues. The Fire Brigades Union applauds their dedication and professionalism. Our thoughts are with the residents of the tower, who have lost their homes and been left traumatised.
“Once again, a fire has erupted in a residential building wrapped in flammable cladding. There needs to be an urgent and swift investigation of how this has been allowed to happen.
“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.
“We have highlighted significant building safety failings before and since the Grenfell Tower fire. It was already known that the Dagenham tower block was dangerous. Time and time again, these warnings have been ignored by public authorities and by central government. This must change immediately.
“The FBU will continue to demand robust action on building safety, and justice for the victims of these entirely avoidable fires.”
Forty fire engines and around 225 firefighters tackled the fire in Dagenham. The whole of the building was affected by the fire, including scaffolding surrounding the property and the roof.
London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe said: “The first crew arrived within five minutes and the second crew arrived within six minutes. An aerial appliance also arrived in under six minutes. To allow us to focus our resources on the incident, we declared a major incident, which has now been stood down. I am immensely grateful to the crews and officers who have operated in the most dangerous conditions to both rescue people and bring the incident under control despite being faced with a significant building failure.
"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.
“More than 80 people were evacuated with firefighters leading residents out to safety and carrying out 20 rescues. This included using fire escape hoods, which can provide 15 minutes of clean, filtered air in smoke-filled environments, helping individuals stay safe until they can be rescued or reach safety. Four people were treated on scene by London Ambulance Service crews, with two taken to hospital.
“We also used new equipment such as drones and our 64-metre and 32-metre turntable ladders to provide incident commanders with a vantage point for assessing the scene. They were also used as water towers to deliver water on to the fire from above.
"We will now begin a full investigation into the fire and its cause. This was a very dynamic and challenging incident, and we know there will undoubtedly be concerns around the fire safety issues present within the building and this will form part of our report.”
