Dagenham fire: Residents’ fury at ‘woeful’ response to blaze that nearly killed them
Residents who escaped a fire in a “deathtrap” block of flats have told Sky News they feel abandoned after both the management firm and owner of the building have failed to meet them.
The response has been branded “woeful” by the local council – who have had to pay £500,000 to support residents who have lost everything.
It’s been five weeks since people ran for their lives in the early hours after fire ripped through the privately owned Spectrum Building in east London during works to remove dangerous cladding.
Residents said fire alarms failed to sound and an escape route was padlocked, which meant some had to climb fences to flee.
“They don’t care… we are nothing to them,” said Kasia Stantke as we sat in her budget hotel room next to a busy dual carriageway where she’s been living for most of the past five weeks.
“We are worthless [to them], why would they not meet us?” she asked.
The 43-year-old management accountant describes the building that she, and 80 other residents, called home as a “death trap”.
She was horrified to learn various works to address fire safety problems had been ongoing for the past four years.
“The people responsible should be prosecuted, if guilty they should go to jail,” said Kasia.
Kasia Stantke says the building was a ‘death trap’
Other residents have told Sky News they too feel abandoned.
Some are tenants who were renting their flats, others own the leases of their properties.
The freeholder – who owns the building – employed a firm called Block Management to manage the communal areas.
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Fire engulfs London tower block
One woman described the response since the fire as “an insult” that has compounded the trauma of that night.
A children’s nursery on the ground floor has also had to move to a new temporary home.
Sky News tracked down the director of Block Management, who reluctantly agreed to speak to us near their headquarters in Suffolk.
David Collinson acknowledged the situation residents have been left in is “absolutely awful”.
However, he rejects the council’s claim that his company should have led on support for residents.
“I’m very sorry we don’t have that legal obligation,” he said.
David Collinson is sympathetic but rejects the assertion his company should have done more
“We are employed as a block manager to manage the common parts of the property, not the leasehold flats and not the tenants.
“We don’t have a contract with them. Obviously, we’re massively sympathetic. And if I could wave a magic wand to help them out, I promise you, you know, that’s exactly what we would do.”
“I would love to go meet with the residents, but I haven’t,” he added. “We physically haven’t got anything tangible to say to the residents.”
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‘It felt like I was going to die then and there’
We asked if he was aware of the history of fire safety problems in the block.
He said: “There’s been various projects over probably the last 48 months of fire remediation works. And to the best of our knowledge, everything was done as it should be.”
“The freeholder has the ultimate responsibility. It’s his building,” Mr Collinson added.
‘Attitude needs to change’
Sky News has tried repeatedly to reach Brijesh Patel, the director of Arinium, the listed freeholder, but he has not responded to calls or messages.
The local authority has had to step in with emergency help and accommodation for residents and has so far spent over £500,000.
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Residents fleeing fire cry for opening of gate
The leader of the council told Sky News the management company’s remote communications have been unacceptable given the circumstances.
“Contacting remotely from an office? It’s woeful, isn’t it?” Councillor Dominic Twomey told Sky News.
“If Block Management are symptomatic, and I’m hopeful they’re not, of management companies, then I think that attitude needs to change.”
“Just go and talk to people,” he pleaded.
Mr Twomey says councils need more powers to tackle freeholders and managing agents
After the fire, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner visited the Spectrum building and promised to make sure residents were supported.
She also vowed to accelerate the remediation works to remove dangerous cladding on residential blocks around the country.
Cllr Twomey added: “It has to be a national change… more teeth for local authorities like us.
“Because if we had more powers to speak to and tackle freeholders or block management companies, if we could actually make them come to the table and engage, that would just be a step in the right direction.”
The fire, which broke out on 26 August, is still under investigation by the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade and the Health and Safety Executive.
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More immediately for Kasia, the erection of scaffolding outside her budget hotel room has brought the memories of that night flooding back.
“I’m scared now again, I’m really hoping it will be a week or so and I will be able to move on,” she said.
“But for now, another scaffolding outside my window.”
“Am I again trapped? What’s going to happen now? I can’t believe it, it’s a living nightmare, absolutely,” she added.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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