A resident of a high-rise block of flats says a fire this morning was started by an electric bike battery being charged in his home.
Liiban Shakat, 38, thought he was ‘going to die’ after his friend Abid Naser Mohamed woke him and led him to the guest bedroom, which was engulfed in flames.
His friend ended up being taken to hospital for smoke inhalation after the blaze erupted around 9am in Shepherd’s Bush, west London.
Around 60 firefighters and two ambulances were rushed over to Queensdale Crescent, less than a mile away from Grenfell Tower – where a fire in 2017 claimed the lives of 72 people.
Liiban told how he friend, who had been staying with him for several days, started charging an e-bike battery in the flat when it began smoking in the socket.
When it was unplugged it sparked and the surroundings were set alight, he added.
The scorched windows of Liiban’s home at the Stebbing House flats could clearly be seen.
Speaking to reporters outside the building and still wearing his macawis – a traditional Somali style of pyjamas – Liiban his friend was in lying in bed when the fire broke out.
He said Abid’s mouth ‘was black because he inhaled so much smoke’. Liiban was half-awake when he was confronted with the blaze.
He rushed to pour a bucket of water over the burning debris, but this ended up exacerbating the fire.
‘I was in shock,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do,’ he added.
Liiban then ran to try and escape the building and alert his neighbours by knocking on nearby doors of the 12th floor.
At least 30 residents fled the building as plumes of black smoke were seen billowing out of windows.
‘Something was coming from the bike, smoke, so he unplugged it. Now the debris, the plastic, the fire caught the whole place, the windows the bed,’ said Liiban, who has lived in the building for 20 years.
He claimed no fire alarm had sounded and no water sprinklers had been activated, despite the size of the fire.
But Jonathan Stone, a safety manager at the Hammersmith and Fulham Council, which owns and runs the building, said precautionary measures taken by the local authorities had ‘prevented another Grenfell’.
Firefighters managed to get the fire under control about 90 minutes after the first emergency call.
Both Mr Stone and the Labour council’s leader Stephen Cowan, who were at the scene after the fire, said they’d been advised that the fire alarms had gone off as expected.
The council has a system called Fire Safety Plus which has taken steps including installing fire safety doors to help residents stay protected.
Mr Cowan said the fire was put out so quickly partly due to the lack of flammable cladding – a crucial difference from the Grenfell Tower disaster.
He said residents may understandably be ‘in shock’ after the ordeal and that reports of fire alarms failing to sound were understood to be inaccurate.
Labour MP for Hammersmith Andy Slaughter said he understood the fire would be ‘of great concern’ and said a full report would be completed to formally establish the cause.
‘Any fire, particularly in high rise buildings, is going to be of great concern to residents and they will need reassurance that all safety measures are in place,’ he said.
Liiban said today’s fire brought back memories of watching the Grenfell Tower blaze from his flat.
‘I thought I was going to die today,’ he added.
Just hours after the fire in Shepherd’s Bush, another tower block blaze broke out in the east of the capital.
Around 100 firefighters attended rushed to the high-rise building in Manor Park as huge plumes of smoke filled the air.
The blaze was brought under control after about two hours, and it still isn’t clear what set it off.
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from News – Metro https://metro.co.uk/2022/06/21/fire-at-block-of-flats-near-grenfell-tower-started-by-charging-e-bike-battery-16868746/
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