Another cladding fire has struck London, this time in East London’s Dagenham. Early Monday morning, a 7-story residential tower at 22-24 Freshwater Road was engulfed in flames. Construction was happening on the building’s fifth and sixth floors in a renovation led by GAA Design.
The exact cause of the fire is under investigation. Nobody was killed, but over 80 people were evacuated. The fire occurred around a week before Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 concludes. The highly anticipated report’s findings will either absolve or attribute blame to Kingspan, Celotex, Arconic, and other parties accused of contributing to the lethal 2017 fire, and England’s “cladding crisis” more broadly.
A huge blaze engulfed a block of flats in Dagenham with “known fire safety issues” on Monday.
More than 100 people have been evacuated and two taken to hospital after a fire broke out in the building in East London.
Follow the latest here ⬇️https://t.co/O0st67N2wT pic.twitter.com/Chn4TapwPT
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 26, 2024
At 22-24 Freshwater Road, the residential tower’s existing non-compliant cladding—high pressure laminate (HPL) panels—was being swapped out with new cladding manufactured by Valcan, a leading A1 and A2 non-combustible cladding provider, according to a Facebook post.
According to London Fire Assistant Commissioner Patrick Goulbourne, the building had “a number of fire safety issues known to London Fire Brigade.” The Fire Brigade Union said the Dagenham fire relaunched a conversation about the “national scandal of flammable cladding and deregulation in the building industry” which kicked off after Grenfell.
Grenfell United, a coalition founded by survivors and allies of survivors of the Grenfell fire, also issued a statement about the Dagenham fire; it said the blaze highlighted “a lack of urgency for building safety.”
Our statement on the Dagenham fire: pic.twitter.com/vADYMdelhY
— Grenfell United (@GrenfellUnited) August 26, 2024
The 7-story building at 22-24 Freshwater Road was deemed non-compliant in 2019 because of its cladding. The wood fiber at the building released heat 25 times faster, and burned 115 times hotter, then compliant non-combustible products according to researchers at University of Central Lancashire.
In 2023, the building’s property managers were issued a violation that described a “failure to provide and/or maintain adequate and clearly indicated emergency routes and exits.” (Problems related to signage and egress also played a huge role in the Grenfell fire.)
Today, the U.K. government estimates that 4,630 residential buildings over 3 stories still have dangerous, non-compliant cladding.
