Terrified parents fled a burning block of flats in south London with their children under their arms after a tenth-floor flat went up in flames last Tuesday (20 August). Families living in the Lewisham Council building in Sydenham, south-east London, said they were alerted to the fire by the smell of smoke and police and firefighters knocking on their doors on Tuesday afternoon.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) said its crews rescued a man from a tenth-floor flat in a fire hood after being called to the block in Dacres Road at around 3.40pm. He was treated at the scene by paramedics.

Sandra, 58, who did not want to give her last name, said her disabled daughter had to be carried down several flights of stairs by police officers who knocked on her door and told her to leave the house.

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On Thursday (August 22), two days after the fire, she said: “When we heard the noises, we thought someone was breaking glass. We didn’t know that a window had blown out in the tenth-floor apartment. I said I could smell smoke. Then they started banging on the doors.”

“My daughter is in a wheelchair and cannot go down the stairs. The police had to carry her down and bring her back up. If we had gone any higher, it would have been difficult to get her out.”

Mother Destiny Ifechukwu Mark, who did not want to reveal her age, said she was on her way to work when she noticed the high-rise block was on fire.

On Thursday, she said: “We were scared. We ran down the stairs. No one could use the elevator. I ran down with my son. People were carrying their babies. It was a terrible experience.”

Several residents the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) spoke to said firefighters on the scene told them that an unattended candle caused the fire. The LFB said investigations to determine the cause of the fire were ongoing.

Lewisham Council said it had been told there would be no enforcement action against the local authority and that an LFB audit carried out after the fire found the building to be “broadly compliant”, the highest rating.

Following the fire, some residents lost their cold water supply, but the supply was restored late last week. Flats on the upper floors directly below the flat where the fire started were flooded by water pumped into the building to extinguish the fire, according to residents. The residents of these water-damaged flats are currently living in alternative accommodation organised by the local council.

Local resident Worawa Lun Osysko, 42, said she had decided to stay. She told the LDRS last Thursday: “The carpet by the window is damaged by water. Water is still running from the ceiling. But only parts of the apartment by the window are affected.”

The fire destroyed a tenth-floor flat and part of the roof of the high-rise. Since Thursday last week, the entrance to the flat had been locked with a wooden door. In a gap between the door and the wall was a note from Lewisham Council, instructing the flat’s resident not to enter his property and instead to call a number scribbled on the note.

According to the LFB, around 70 firefighters and 10 fire engines were at the scene of the fire on Tuesday (August 20). The fire was under control at 5:16 p.m. the same day. According to a local resident, the fire department sent a drone to the tenth floor to check whether the flames had gone out.

A Lewisham Council spokesman said: “Some flats on the upper floors of the building were affected by water damage and the affected households were immediately relocated to alternative accommodation. We are in regular contact with them while our contractors assess the damage so that we can better understand what works are necessary before our residents can move back in.”

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