On 29th January 2024 at 1642 London Fire Brigade received nine emergency calls to a fire at a flat on Elm Road in Wembley.
Twenty fire engines and approximately 125 firefighters attended, taking until 2201 to bring the fire under control. By this time half of the external side of the building, all of the roof and four external balconies had been damaged by the fire. Five other blocks were evacuated as a precaution. All residents were accounted for with no reports of injury.
Residents reported hearing a “boom” and then seeing a boiler on fire on a balcony on the third floor.,
London Fire Brigade, along with the scientific advisor at Bureau Veritas ( a global company who provide testing, inspection and certification services) are now working to establish the cause of the fire. Initial reports confirm that external cladding was involved in the blaze.
Barry Gardiner, MP for Brent North, who has been campaigning for the removal of the cladding for three years, claimed that this fire shows that the “lessons of Grenfell” have not been learned.
At a community meeting at Brent Civic Centre, attended by residents, London Fire Brigade and staff from Octavia Housing (the owners of the block) Mr Gardiner said that “fire alarms had failed to go off, police had incorrectly advised residents to ‘stay put’ in their flats and Octavia Housing had failed to repair gas boilers and appliances for over six months”.
In response Octavia said “While we await the results of the London Fire Brigade’s fire investigation, we understand that fire detection alarms were activated in Petworth Court and monitored by the on-site fire marshal who alerted the fire brigade and assisted residents to evacuate the building safely.
"Alarms would not have been activated in adjoining blocks which were not subject to a fire.
“Our fire safety approach was changed to an Evacuate Policy in 2019 for the safety of our customers, in line with updated government guidelines at the time. This was communicated clearly to residents.
“All Octavia boiler contractors are Gas Safe registered which means they are duty-bound to cap the gas supply if they consider any appliance is unsafe.” Residents claimed that this was not the case.