About 70 people were evacuated from the Relay Building on Monday with the rest of the residents staying in their ‘unaffected’ homes 

Relay Building

125 firefighters were called to the Relay Building in Aldgate. Credit: London Fire Brigade

The London Fire Brigade has confirmed investigations are ongoing into a dramatic blaze in a 22-storey block in Aldgate earlier this week. 

More than 100 firefighters were called to the Redrow-built Relay Building on the top of Aldgate East Underground station, on the corner of Tyne Street and Whitechapel Road, at around 4pm on Monday. 

The London fire service said a three-roomed flat on the 17th floor and part of a three-roomed flat on the 18th floor were damaged by the blaze, as was half of an external 18th floor balcony. 

A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: “Our fire investigators are continuing their work to investigate all aspects of the fire and determine what caused the blaze.” It is expected their scientists and firefighters will be there today and tomorrow. 

Station commander Chris Jenner said on Monday a woman was trapped by the nature of the fire on the 17th floor. She was led to safety via the internal staircase. It is believed ambulances took two patients to hospital and treated two on the scene.

About 70 people were evacuated from the building “with others remaining in their unaffected flats,” Jenner said.

A spokesperson for Redrow said: “We’re aware of the fire that took place at The Relay Building earlier this week. We understand that investigations are ongoing and will await the findings.

“The building was constructed under a design and build contract in 2012 and the freehold was sold in 2014. Our thoughts remain with anyone affected by this incident.”

Network Homes, which is the lead lessee of 70 flats across floors seven to 11 in the block, said the building had a stay put policy and “like all other residential buildings with a stay put policy, under current fire regulations it does not have a fire alarm”.

A fire assessment commissioned by Network Homes last year concluded the block was a ‘medium’ fire risk and a fire there posed a ‘moderate harm’. The report said it was ‘not known’ if the external walls of the building were satisfactory with regard to fire spreading, although, a fire risk assessment of the block in 2019 answered ‘yes’ to this question. 

At 5.09pm on Monday a resident of the block, Deeba Syed, tweeted residents had been “raising fire safety issues” with Network Homes for “years”. 

Network Homes’ spokesperson said that it had been “in active discussion with the freeholder’s managing agents about fire safety measures including removal and replacement of timber balcony decking”. The fire assessment from last year said the multi-tenanted complex is managed and run by property consultants John D Wood.  

The building opened in 2014 and was completed by the contractor John Sisk & Son, a member of Sisk Group. It was designed by architect Sigma Seifert and construction on it started in 2008. But the original owner went bankrupt in 2010. The partially built site was acquired by Redrow in 2011.

Property developer Hondo Enterprises bought the site in 2014 and sold it to Harbor Group International in July 2018.  

The London Fire Brigade used a 64 m turntable ladder, which they say is the tallest firefighting ladder in Europe.  

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