Woman who escaped east London flats fire tells of homelessness fears

A woman who escaped a fire at a block of flats in east London, and who is being housed in a hotel, has said she fears becoming homeless next week.

More than 200 firefighters responded to the fire at a multi-storey building in Dagenham overnight on August 26. 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.

More than 80 people were evacuated in the incident at Freshwater Road, with the fire taking more than eight hours to bring under control.

Katarzyna Barwinska told BBC Newsnight on Friday that the family’s dog did more to alert them to the blaze than the fire alarm.

“When the dog wake up us we don’t know it’s fire because it’s no alarm, so I’m saying to my husband something has happened, something has happened, so when we are going outside it’s just like smoke in the corridor,” she told the programme.

“Maybe we just dead, maybe when we not have dog in the home,” she added.

Mrs Barwinska told of struggling to exit because of a “padlock outside in the gate” with police eventually helping them out.

She described being in shock and crying while filming footage of their escape.

The programme heard her husband, who is an electrician, is unable to work after all his equipment was damaged in the fire.

Asked how difficult it is for her not knowing where she and her husband will live next week, she said: “This is like stress for us.

“I’m just worried what happens next Monday.”

She continued: “What I need now I need to know just Government give me just place for stay.

“I don’t care about stuff… but I need to know where I’m staying for next week.”

Barking and Dagenham Council told Newsnight it is aware some hotel bookings are coming to an end on Monday and said it will be renewing bookings for those who need emergency accommodation.

Cladding on the seven-storey Dagenham building had been in the process of being removed with scaffolding visible at the site. London Fire Brigade confirming there were “known fire safety issues”.

The east London blaze broke out more than seven years on from the Grenfell Tower fire and little more than a week before the inquiry’s final report was published.