“Unknown flaming objects” are partly responsible for a fire that swept through a block of flats in Dagenham, leaving over 80 homeless.
Residents were forced to flee after the Spectrum Building on Freshwater Road in Dagenham was engulfed in flames in the early hours of the morning on August 26 last year.
Twenty people were rescued, while residents spoke out in horror that alarms did not go off inside the building and even one fire gate being “padlocked shut”.
A new report into the cause of the fire has revealed that objects flew through the air and landed on a nursery attached to the block of flats, sparking flames that spread up the building and ignited the surrounding timber.
While these objects were seen on CCTV, it was not possible to determine the exact cause of the blaze or whether it was started accidentally or deliberately, the report added.
Forty fire engines and around 225 firefighters were called to the blaze just before 3am that day.
Footage posted on social media showed a firefighter on a tall ladder attempting to extinguish the blaze with a water cannon. Huge plumes of smoke could be seen billowing from the top floor of the burning building.
In December, the flats were deemed unsafe by the building owners and demolished, as residents shared their dismay at not being able to reclaim their belongings.
Former resident, Sarah Williams, told the BBC it did not matter how the fire started, rather “it's how that building was in such a condition that it spread so quickly”.
"Fires start in blocks of flats all the time,” she said.
"If blocks of flats work properly, you don't have 80 people running for their lives in the middle of the night, and then the building being completely demolished while the building owner vanishes, the building managers vanish, and everybody who's made profit from us just vanishes into the ether," she added.
A separate investigation into possible fire safety breaches is ongoing and is a priority for LFB, the report said.
Managing agents Block Management UK Ltd have been approached by The Standard for comment.
Block Management UK Ltd previously stated that its role, as appointed by the freeholder, was limited to managing the common areas and did not extend to individual flats.
The LFB told the BBC it would not comment on the report directly but said it would be discussing the full report with residents and those connected to the block in a meeting on Thursday evening.
The brigade said it would be able to comment further following the meeting.
