A major incident saw a fire causing the mass evacuation of the Spectrum Building in Dagenham, London, over the weekend
Dagenham’s Spectrum tower was evacuated after the London Fire Brigade responded to a call of fire in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The tower was undergoing work to remove non-compliant cladding at the time, and the tower was covered in scaffolding as a result.
Work was ongoing on Dagenham tower at the time of the blaze
One of the companies involved in the work posted on Facebook that the work was then being focused on the fifth and sixth floors, the top two.
The work was to remove cladding that was non-compliant, as it is known to be flammable.
London fire commissioner Andy Roe said that the building had “a number of fire safety issues” and that a full investigation will be launched into the fire and its cause.
Luckily there were no fatalities
The fire burned for over 8 hours, and more than 80 residents were evacuated, with two being sent to hospital. It took 40 fire engines and around 225 fire fighters to bring the blaze under control, with the major incident being stood down after more than 11 hours.
In a week, the final report on 2017’s Grenfell fire disaster is due to be released. With this incident in lack of fire safety occurring so close to the release, a Grenfell Tower campaign group have said the Dagenham tower fire a “scenario we have warned about for seven years” and disparages the lack of progress made.
Matt Wrack, the Fire Brigades Union general secretary, said: “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.”
