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Met Police closes criminal investigation into Dagenham fire
The Metropolitan Police has closed its investigation into the fire in Dagenham, Inside Housing can reveal.
Detectives said they found no criminal evidence behind the blaze at the Spectrum Building, which caused more than 80 people to lose their homes and two people to be taken to hospital.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told Inside Housing: “Detectives have been working closely with London Fire Brigade to establish the cause of a fire on Freshwater Road, Dagenham.
“A number of enquiries have been carried out. No evidence has been found that the fire was started deliberately and the criminal investigation has been closed.”
However, it is understood that the London Fire Brigade and the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire, and their work is likely to take months to complete.
A Health and Safety Executive spokesperson said: “A joint investigation with the London Fire Brigade is ongoing. The criminal investigation covers both our role as the BSR and matters that fall under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Building Safety Act 2022. We will continue to work closely with LFB throughout this process.”
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Sarah Williams, a former resident of the Spectrum Building, told Inside Housing it was “good news to know that the fire was not started deliberately”.
However, she said: “There will have been a legacy of poor decisions and actions that led to the fire being that destructive. I now face months of waiting to find out who and what caused this.”
She added: “How many other residents in blocks of flats will have to experience homelessness and trauma before the government takes proper action to make sure these flats are resilient to fire and don’t burn down?”
Areas the Building Safety Regulator is investigating include how the cladding remediation works were organised and undertaken, and whether this was a factor in the fire.
The probe will also look into whether the principal accountable person for the building had discharged their duties under Part 4 of the Building Safety Act in relation to spread of fire.
The seven-storey Spectrum Building had several known fire safety issues and cladding remediation work was under way when the fire broke out, with the building covered in scaffolding and timber scaffold boards.
Residents had highlighted their fears about wooden decking on balconies and “broken” fire doors as far back as 2018.
Its destruction prompted Angela Rayner, deputy prime minister and housing secretary, to call for remediation plans to be sped up, while Matt Wrack, general secretary at the Fire Brigades Union, said it exposed the “national scandal of flammable cladding and deregulation in the building industry”.
Former residents of the block are still living in hotels with the help of Barking and Dagenham Council. This is despite the fact that the building was privately owned. (The current freeholder, Arinium, took over ownership in 2020; the managing agent is Block Management UK.)
The block was built in 1974 as an office and converted to flats in the late 2010s, with new storeys supported by a timber frame, solar panels and a roof deck area added.
At the time of the fire, the building contained 60 flats as well as two commercial units and a gym.
Planning permission was granted in May 2023 for the removal of cladding on the fifth and sixth floors and its replacement with compliant cladding, as well as the removal of window spandrel panels and balcony privacy screens.
The work had been due to begin in June 2023 and finish in December, but in August this year the cladding manufacturer, Valcan, wrote on Facebook that work to replace the cladding was ongoing.
The London Fire Brigade was approached for further comment on its investigation.
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