Ensuring Site Safety After Fire in Penge

Following a large blaze in Penge, South East London, in the early hours of 29 January 2024, Metro Contracting Ltd. was called upon to provide vital and immediate works.

The fire at a residential block in Penge, which made London news, caused an estimated £1.5 million of damage to the three-storey building, destroying the roof and five other areas of the development. The fire had also cut out the property's power supply.

The property, once the fire was extinguished by the London Fire Brigade (LFB).

Metro Contracting's urgent tasks were to ensure that anyone accessing the site could do so safely whilst simultaneously protecting the building from potential trespassers.

Following the fire, the sky can be seen through the fire damaged roof of the block. Screenshot from a video of the site.

Two days after the fire, we were able to re-access the site to secure it against potential trespassers following and investigations.

The works included:

Surveying the site to ensure safety
Gaining entrance to the block using specialist PPE
Installing site lighting, as there was no power to the block following the fire. This allowed our team, as well as any follow-up teams from Emergency Services, to work safely
Securing the main communal entrance door to protect the site from intruders and squatters
Works to four flat entry doors as they had been either burnt out or removed from their hinges
Securing the damaged flats with an 18mm sheet material on all doors, protected with padlocks
Hasp and staple lock installation for property security through the communal entrance
Fitting a coded lock to the main communal entrance to further protect the property. This code was later shared with former block residents to enable them to collect remaining possessions.

The team have since re-attended the site to secure the structure with scaffolding.

A selection of drains sit flush with the rest of the playground's tarmac

Luckily, no-one was seriously harmed in the fire. The incident is still under investigation by relevant authorities, and our team are ready to be called back to the site to begin restoring the homes back to a liveable condition.

A short, orange brick building has two windows. The windows have a thick steel mesh fitted over the top.

Are you in need of reliable reactive maintenance contractors that you can trust with emergency call outs? Metro Contracting can be at your London, Kent or Surrey site within four hours. Enquire today to set us up as your suppliers.

The front entrance to the school is a blue door. In this image, the door is open and bordered with white finger guards. Red steps lead up to the blue door.

The photo collage shows two sets of stainless steel water fountains. All four water fountains are fitted against brick walls, have long taps to allow bottles to access the tap easily, and have round basins so no sharp edges to hurt fingers.

The photo collage shows two pictures side by side. On the left side is a picture of a small room. At the end of this small, narrow room sits a new window. It is single pane to keep in the style of the existing building windows, and features three narrow pains on top of one another. The right side shows a blue internal fire door. Another pane of glass has been fitted within the door. It is a blurred glass with a wooden trim.

This bathroom has white walls and blue cubicle doors. Above the doors, new cieling tiles have been fitted. They are large, white squares.

This photo collage shows the same door. In the left side, the door is open and pictured from the side, showing where the edge of the door has been filed down. The filed part of the door is unpainted. The right side of the collage shows the blue door shut flush with the frame.

This photo collage shows two sets of different sinks. The left side of the collage shows white, round, porcelain bathroom sinks set into a blue counter. Red soap dispensers line the walls above the sinks. On the right side, aa stainless steel, long and rectangular sink

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