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Louise Thomas
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A major fire in Dagenham last month which had the same cause as the Grenfell Tower tragedy proves that fire fighters and the public are still at risk from a major blaze, a union boss has warned.
Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), told The Independent that his members have been betrayed in the aftermath of the Grenfell disaster as well as in the events leading to the tragedy.
It comes after the London Fire Brigade was severely criticised for its lack of preparation for the disaster in the report presented by Sir Martin Moore-Bick.
Mr Wrack described the 70 firefighters who turned up to fight the blze and rescue people as “heroic” but said the report confirmed that they had not been properly prepared and there was no plan in place.
He is furious that constant warnings about the cladding on Grenfell Tower had been ignored in the five years before the fire.
Mr Wrack told The Independent: “When fire fighters arrived at Grenfell they expected a fire which would be contained in the building because that’s what they had been told. Instead it spread rapidly throughout the building and there was no plan to deal with it.
“We saw exactly the same thing happen just days ago in Dagenham where the same thing happened with the same cause because of outside cladding.
“The fact is that the fire at Grenfell would not have spread the same way if the building had been left in its original state. It was the modifications and cladding which caused the deaths and the report confirmed that.”
There are still more than 3,000 buildings across the UK with the dangerous ACM cladding which cost so many people their lives.
Mr Wrack said: “It is astonishing. The government has got to get on top of this. We cannot have any further delay.”
He wants residents to have their voices listened to in preparing for fire safety but also ordinary fire fighters “who have a great deal of frontline experience” not just brigade managers.
He told The Independent: “I feel fire fighters in London and around the country have been badly let down. They were heroic at Grenfell but we still see the same problems.”
Mr Wrack also insisted that the report “must be a turning point” in the push for deregulation in the building and construction industry.
The union leader, who is also president of the Trades Union Congress, said he was “pleased that the deputy prime minister (Angela Rayner) joined me on a visit to Dagenham” to view the burnt out block of flats there.
But he said: “The report is very clear that this contributed to the loss of lives at Grenfell. The deaths were a consequence of central government policy , ministers, secretaries of state and prime ministers.
“When we said at the time of the tragedy that deregulation was to blame we were accused of politicising it but we have been proven right.”
The Grenfell Tower fire saw 72 people lose their lives as the fire took hold of the block.
The tragedy has been blamed on warnings being ignored by successive governments over 30 years, a breakdown in trust and communications between the people responsible for the block and families, and dishonesty by construction companies.
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