Flammable cladding helped fire spread across flats

Flammable cladding and strong winds helped a blaze spread across an apartment building after a balcony's light fitting caught fire, investigators have concluded.

Nearly 300 residents were evacuated from Mosaic Apartments in Slough's High Street just after midnight on 22 August 2024, with many spending months in temporary accommodation.

The building's freeholder, Wallace Estates, said aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding has been removed.

But residents have raised concerns about why the cladding was left on the building.

They said similar materials had helped spread fire in the Grenfell Tower disaster.

One woman told the BBC her life was severely disrupted after she and other residents were moved out of their homes between August and December.

"I couldn't keep taking days off work," she said. "I just didn't have it in me to go into work, pretending that everything was normal and not know when I was returning home.

"Mental health-wise I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

"What if someone died in that fire? What if someone was injured? Why did it wait for a fire to happen?"

A Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said the fire was thought to have been accidentally started and "most likely caused by an external balcony light fitting".

They said: "The light fitting, including its assembly, had sufficient combustible materials to support fire development to the point in which it spread to the flammable materials within the ACM cladding.

"The flammability of the ACM cladding system, assisted by strong winds, contributed to the rapid fire spread."

Residents were alerted by people knocking on their doors after the fire broke out on the sixth and seventh floors of the seven-storey complex. No one was injured.

A spokesperson for Wallace Estates said the company had worked to remove cladding on the top floor "as soon as possible".

They said: "The isolated cladding has now been fully removed, and the scaffolding will start being deconstructed on the week commencing 3 March.

"The scaffolding will take approximately three weeks to clear off site."

A government spokesperson said the pace of replacing cladding across the country has been "far too slow for far too long" and that it was "taking decisive action to make homes safe".

The spokesperson from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government added: "Our Remediation Acceleration Plan sets out key measures to fix buildings faster, identify remaining buildings still at risk and support residents through the remediation process."

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