Essex blaze sparks fears over timber-clad homes

Last week a fire broke out on the Felmores estate in Basildon, Essex, where the majority of homes are timber-frame and many are also clad in timber.

The blaze spread to two adjoining properties, causing smoke damage. It follows a fire on the estate in 2009 which left eight homes gutted, and another in 2012 in which two homes were destroyed.

Of the 900 homes on the estate, which was built in 1978, 412 were timber clad. The majority of the homes (700) are council-owned, a small number are owned by Swan Housing Association and the rest are owned privately.

Gavin Callaghan, a Labour councillor at Basildon Council, along with other Labour councillors at the Conservative-led authority, and Baroness Angela Smith, former MP for Basildon, will next week ask communities secretary Eric Pickles to grant an independent investigation into the safety of the homes. Mr Callaghan said he wanted central government to fund the inquiry.

He added: ‘I have spoken to many residents who live in the timber-clad houses on the estate who are terrified. I know one mum who puts her children to sleep in the family room downstairs and stays awake all night, choosing to sleep when her children are at school, just in case there is a fire and they need to get out quickly.

‘Basildon Council [hasn’t] done enough - these houses need to be as safe as possible and action [to make them safer] needs to be taken quickly.’

Fire expert Arnold Tarling, associate director at Hindwoods Chartered Surveyors, described the estate as ‘potentially a death trap’.

Some residents have called for the estate to be demolished but James Henderson, property services building manager at Basildon Council, ruled this out on the grounds it is ‘not affordable’.

Mr Henderson said the council works ‘very closely’ with the fire service and ‘they say these house are safe’. But he added that the council wanted to allay residents’ fears by making the houses safer.

Since June the authority has removed the timber cladding from 10 homes and replaced it with fire-proof cladding at a cost of £100,000.

The council plans to reclad all 412 timber-clad homes but Mr Henderson said this would cost £5 million and ‘we are investigating the right solution for funding’.

Mr Henderson said the council intended to install sprinkler systems in all flats served by the communal areas on the estate ‘to protect the residents and the means of escape in case of future fires’. The cost of this work, which has yet to be confirmed, will be match-funded by Essex County Fire & Rescue Service.

John Harris, assistant divisional officer at the fire service, said: ‘With the construction of the flats and the location of the flat where the fire started at the corner of the block, [the crew’s] prompt action undoubtedly went a long way in preventing more damage.’

Swan Housing Association declined to comment.