Dagenham fire: Developers were warned over dangerous cladding years ago
Building developers were warned about dangerous cladding years ago, it has emerged, after a large fire in Dagenham saw two people taken to hospital.
Forty fire engines and 225 firefighters attended the scene on Freshwater Road, Dagenham at 2.44am on Monday, after a huge blaze broke out in the building, causing more than 100 people to flee their homes.
Work had been underway to remove “non-compliant cladding” in the mixed-use commercial and residential tower.
Andy Roe, the London fire commissioner, said a full investigation into the Dagenham fire and its cause would be launched.
“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,” he said.
Questions around the role of cladding will “form part” of an investigation into the fire, London Fire Brigade (LFB) has confirmed.
LFB assistant commissioner Patrick 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 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.”
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The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has said the incident exposed the “national scandal’ of flammable cladding and deregulation in the building industry”. It said the block had been the subject of a fire enforcement notice in 2023.
They added that the incident comes a week before the final report on the Grenfell Tower inquiry.
Survivors of the tragedy in 2017 said the fire in east London was “a scenario we have warned about for seven years” after it transpired that there had been many worries about fire safety in the block of flats.
Residents of Spectrum House first voiced concerns about the cladding on the upper floors back in 2018, but work to replace it had still not been completed.
Grenfell United, a group of survivors and bereaved families, said the incident “highlights the painfully slow progress” of removing unsafe cladding from buildings.
Matt Wrack, the FBU 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.
“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.
“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.”