Mother relives terror of locked exits during Dagenham tower inferno as families struggle on in hotels

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A mother has told of the terrifying moment she fled an inferno ripping through her east London block of flats only to find the fire exit chained shut.

More than 80 residents had to be evacuated after a blaze ignited cladding that was being removed from the seven-storey Spectrum building in Freshwater Road in Dagenham on 26 August. Four people were treated on scene by London Ambulance Service crews, with two taken to hospital.

Four weeks on, some families are still forced to live in hotels with their traumatised children, having lost everything in the blaze. The local community has rallied around setting up soul nights and crowdfunders to help support them.

The block was in the process of undergoing cladding remediation to replace high-pressure laminate panels when it caught fire.

It is believed the blaze may have started from building materials kept on the scaffolding, according to the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE).

The IFE said preliminary investigations suggest the materials’ flammability may have accelerated the spread of the fire at the Spectrum Building, which required 40 fire engines and 225 firefighters to put out.

London Fire Brigade had previously issued an enforcement notice to Block Management UK in April due to the building’s failure to meet fire safety requirements.

The property managers have so far failed to even meet with survivors of the blaze, Barking and Dagenham Council said.

Mother-of-two Cydney Parker, 26, relived the night she and her children “lost everything” in the chaos.

She told the Independent: “There were no fire alarms, they didn’t go off.

“I heard my upstairs neighbour running around and I thought it wasn’t normal. I looked out the window and saw flashing blue lights. I ran to the front door and the corridor was filled with thick, black smoke.

“It was terrifying. I banged on a few doors but no one answered. Then there were five of us running down the stairs.

“We got to the fire exit gate on the ground floor and it was locked. There was a big chain with a padlock. The fire was still raging at the back.

“We were stuck. It had never been locked before the builders came. I don’t know why. They always told us that would be the fire exit.”

Ms Parker managed to help other neighbours climb a ladder over a fence where firefighters helped drag the group to safety.

Since that night, the mother-of-two says she and dozens of other families have been left alone for weeks struggling in temporary hotel accommodation.

“It’s been a struggle to process,” she explained. “But now I’m more stressed out because I don’t know where we are going to live.

“Me and the kids need a home to start all over again. I’m in a hotel, I’m grateful, but all I’m hearing from the council is that we will have to move out of Barking and Dagenham. But my eldest goes to school here.

“We’ve been left alone. We’re told we will be at the hotel until Monday and to get all our belongings together and then it is extended. It feels like it will last forever.

“At first I tried to make it seem fun. We’ve been going out in the day and coming back late just to tire them out. But now they have had enough, they don’t want to live here they want to go home.

“I had to tell my eldest that we are never going back there. She is traumatised, she grew up in that flat.”

On the official fundraiser aiming to raise £30,000 for the families, she added: “I’ve seen how many people have donated and it is nice. It will help us start to rebuild and get back to a normal life. We’ve had help from the council with money and stuff but it’s not a lot really to get by.

“I didn’t really know my neighbours at first but now we all speak and look out for each other.”

Neighbours told the Independent that video exists of residents struggling to get out of the locked fire exits.

Drone operator Darren Sidey said: “We had a third of the entire London Fire Brigade fleet at the scene that morning.

“It’s a miracle everyone made it out safe, especially as no fire alarm sounded and fire escapes were locked shut.

“I was sent one mobile phone video from a resident who recorded them trying to escape.

“You hear them screaming and pleading with people to break open the fire escapes whilst the flame raged around them. I honestly can imagine what they must have been going through.”

A Barking and Dagenham spokeswoman told the Independent that all residents in the block were private renters.

She said: “Block Management UK Ltd manage the building and we’re working with the government to ensure they comply with their legal obligations to affected residents. They should be leading on support for residents in this private block and they haven’t yet shown up to meet those affected – they have a moral duty to do so.

“We continue to provide affected residents with humanitarian support including emergency accommodation to 27 households, and we’re also working closely with affected residents on a case-by-case basis, based on their individual needs, to help them to secure longer-term accommodation options.”

It came as more than 100,000 homes in England were revealed to be still covered in potentially deadly cladding despite the risk being identified at the time of the Grenfell Tower blaze.

The fire killed 72 people in 2017, with cladding found to be the “principal” reason for the inferno’s rapid spread.

When approached for comment Block Management UK said it was not responsible for the cladding remediation work on the Dagenham block, so is “unable to comment on the cladding”.

It pointed towards the freeholder and the contractors carrying out the works, who have also been approached for comment.

To donate to the fundraiser for the Freshwater Road families click here.