Terrified tower residents feared DYING among flames as they fled for their lives after fire erupts at 15-floor block
Date: 2024-10-21TERRIFIED tower block residents feared they would die in a huge blaze as they fled for their lives.
Ten fire engines and 70 firefighters raced to douse the flames inside a three-bed flat at the block in Plaistow, East London just after 8am today.
Residents feared they would be killed if the horror blaze spread rapidly through the 15-storey building’s cladding.
One man – who wished not to be named – said: “We were terrified this would be another tragedy.”
A mum-of-two who lives next door to the flat where flames were sparked, said she’s lost everything and is being moved to a hotel.
She told The Sun: “I was the next door neighbour of the fire. There was no smoke alarm, I just heard banging and I could see through my peep hole.
“I have two kids and I said ‘Get up quickly, quickly, there’s a fire’.
“It’s the first day of half-term so they were still in bed. They put their coats on and my neighbour said ‘Get out, you need to get them out’.
“It looks like there’s nothing left [in the flat] and we’ve got to stay in a hotel for a few weeks.”
Noor Nahar, who has four kids and lives nearby, said she saw massive clouds of smoke this morning and residents sprinting for their lives.
She said: “I saw people running out of the building.”
Mizan Rahman, 38 who lives on the 13th floor, told The Sun: “My neighbour came and knocked on the door this morning at 8 about the fire.
“I had to send my son to school with no shoes.”
Shipa Ahmed, 32, who has lived in the block for eight years, said: “My wife had a hospital appointment this morning and when she woke up and went to the balcony she saw so much smoke.
“I was in the bedroom and I could smell it. When my wife said there was a fire I grabbed my 19-month-old son and we left.
“I’m a heart failure patient and I left my heart medication and everything. The smoke was coming from under the flat.
“We don’t know what caused it but they’re investigating it.”
One woman in the opposite block said: “I ran down with no shoes and socks and I’ve been telling the council for ages that my smoke detector doesn’t work.”
Balconies on the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th floors, directly above the fire, were heavily damaged by flames.
Two men, who are understood to have been in the burning flat, were treated by paramedics at the scene.
The flat and balcony were “well alight”, the London Fire Brigade said.
A spokesperson added: “Three men left the flat before the Brigade arrived, and two were treated on scene by the London Ambulance Service.
“Around 30 people evacuated from the building.”
There were no reports of further injuries.
The fire service said there had been more than 30 calls reporting the fire.
The first was received just after 8am and firefighters from East Ham, Plaistow, Stratford and surrounding fire stations were at the scene.
The fire is believed to have started accidentally by the failure of a lithium battery – but it is yet to be confirmed.
Crews were able to bring the fire under control by around 9am.
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