Dagenham fire: Two taken to hospital after blaze engulfs east London tower block

Many residents of a tower block in Dagenham completely engulfed in fire on Monday said they heard no fire alarm as they escaped, ITV News' Will Tullis reports.

An investigation is under way after two people were taken to hospital and more than 80 were evacuated after a fire engulfed a block of flats in east London with "known" safety issues.

A major incident was declared following the blaze in Freshwater Road, Dagenham, with 45 fire engines and around 225 firefighters rushing to the scene after the alarm was raised at 2.44am on Monday.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) said 20 people were rescued following a “significant search-and-rescue operation” and that everyone has now been "accounted for".

An investigation into the fire has begun, during which questions around the role of cladding will “form part” of the probe, the LFB’s Assistant Commissioner Patrick Goulbourne said.When asked by reporters at the scene “how big a part did cladding play” in the fire, and how close the incident was to a “bigger disaster”, he 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 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.”

The fire had engulfed the whole building, including scaffolding surrounding the property and the roof.

The building was undergoing “remedial” work to remove and replace “non-compliant cladding” on the fifth and sixth floors containing flats, according to a planning application document.

Sam Ogbeide, who lives on the fourth floor, described the fire as "very terrible" and said he was coughing up "black" from the smoke.

“I opened my main door, smoke was coming in from the window – I live at the back. I saw it (the fire). Very terrible, very terrible," he told reporters.

Mr Ogbeide said it was very busy in the building’s stairwell with fellow residents who “didn’t bring anything” when evacuating. He says he did not see any water sprinklers in the building, but did hear a fire alarm.

“I’ve never experienced something like this in my life. Everything is gone. I don’t know what to do," Mr Ogbeide added.

Another resident living near the building said he heard people “screaming” as the incident unfolded.

Irina Vasile, 46, a healthcare assistant who lived on the second floor, said she was woken by her partner around 3am telling her there was smoke. She said she did not hear a fire alarm going off during the evacuation.

Speaking outside the Becontree Heath Leisure Centre where the residents have been relocated, she said: “When we wanted to open the window, another smoke hit our face, on the throat and the eyes.”

Ms Vasile said she was spotted by firefighters after shouting for help and calling 999. She said: “We didn’t grab nothing – we lost everything."

She added: “My partner is devastated as well. We try to encourage one another because we lost everything. We are scared, frightened to be on the street starting from zero.”

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) sent crews from Dagenham, Ilford, Romford, Barking and surrounding fire stations.

The brigade said parts of the scaffolding surrounding the building, as well as the ground floor and the roof, were alight. It said the building had a "number of fire safety issues" known to officials.

Assistant Commissioner Patrick Goulbourne gives an update at the scene in Dagenham

At 12.16pm, London mayor Sadiq Khan posted on X that the major incident had been stood down, and thanked emergency services who had “worked tirelessly through the night” to control the blaze.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe said the first crew arrived within five minutes, and the second within six. An aerial appliance also arrived in under six minutes.

"The building has a number of fire safety issues known to London Fire Brigade. A full simultaneous evacuation of the building was immediately carried out and a significant search and rescue operation is underway," Mr Roe said.

“The Brigade’s Control Officers have taken 16 calls to the fire, including successfully giving vital fire survival guidance to a number of people using our Fire Survival Guidance App, which allows information to be exchanged between Control and the incident ground in a timely, accurate and consistent manner.

“We are also using new equipment such as drones and our 64-metre turntable ladders and 32-metre turntable ladders to provide incident commanders with a vantage point for assessing the scene. They are also being used as water towers to deliver water on to the fire from above.

“The Brigade has stood up full strategic arrangements to deal with the incident and a rest centre has been set up at Beacontree Health and Leisure Centre. LFB officers are stationed at the rest centre to support residents.”

The London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We sent a large number of resources to the scene, including ambulance crews, incident response officers, an advanced paramedic in critical care, emergency planning officers, a command support vehicle and members of our hazardous area response team (HART).

"We also dispatched London's Air Ambulance. We treated four patients at the scene and took two of them to a hospital.”

Dagenham and Rainham’s Labour MP Margaret Mullane said the swift response from emergency services resulted in only "minimal" injuries.

She wrote on X: “Terrible scenes in Dagenham this morning as @LondonFire tackle the blaze at Freshwater Rd.

“Thanks to their rapid response injury was minimal. I will be visiting the rescue centre today to see what help and support I can offer the residents and businesses who have lost everything.”

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