Southwark Council facing safety charges after deadly tower block fire

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Southwark Council will be prosecuted over a series of fire safety charges after a fire in a tower block that left six people dead.

London Fire Brigade has accused Southwark of a catalogue of failings at Lakanal House in Camberwell. Three women and three children died in 2009 in a fire that was started by an electrical fault with a television.

Designer Catherine Hickman, 31, died in the fire alongside Helen Udoaka, 34, and her three-week-old daughter Michelle.

Dayana Francisquini, 26, and her children, six-year-old Thais and Felipe, three, were also killed.

  • Allegations there was no fire risk assessment for the premises

  • Claims suspended ceilings were in a poor state of repair and were not constructed in a way or made of materials that would stop a fire from spreading

  • Allegations parts of the construction of the building failed to adequately provide barriers to smoke and fire, and that strips and seals were not fitted to fire escape doors or the doors to flats

Southwark Council faces 22 charges under the Regulatory Order 2005 at a plea hearing at Southwark Crown Court.