Residents still in hotels a week after building fire

Rahul Shelke was evacuated last Thursday and has been living in a hotel nearby

Residents who were evacuated after a fire at their apartment building are still living in hotels a week later.

Rahul Shelke was one of 282 people who were evacuated from Mosaic Apartments in High Street, Slough, just after midnight on Thursday 22 August.

He said they still do not know when they might be able to move back into their homes.

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) said "additional interim fire safety measures" had been added after working directly with the building's management company.

Some flats were clearly damaged by the fire

Mr Shelke and his wife were on the second floor, while it is believed the fire broke out on the sixth or seventh floor. He said those two floors were "completely burnt out".

"There was no fire alarm," Mr Shelke said. All he remembers is a neighbour ringing the door and telling them they needed to get out.

He said once they were evacuated, they watched the fire burn with the other residents and they "were all really scared and panicking".

"I was thinking, what if no one came to our door," he said.

It is a week later Mr Shelke and his wife are still living in a hotel - their stay has just been extended for a further two days.

He said: "We are staying in a hotel without any proper updates."

Mr Shelke said the first few days they had to book and pay for their own hotels.

He said: "We have no idea what's going to happen to us, if they will extend us or if they'll let us back in.

"I've no idea what is happening."

It took 50 firefighters to put out the blaze

Andy Robertson, who is a landlord to one of the flats in the building, said it was his "first priority" to reach out to tenants and see what he could do to help.

He said it was "shocking" that people had said they had not heard an alarm.

"How is it we can have two blocks, over 140 residences in 2024, with all that's happened, and no fire alarm goes off?" Mr Robertson asked.

Wallace Estates, the owner of the building, said it had maintained a stay put evacuation strategy so there was no fire alarm.

It meant all residents were only evacuated when the fire brigade decided this was the best course of action.

A spokesperson said: “Since residents were evacuated, we have been working closely with the fire brigade and local authority to assess when it is safe to return to the building.

"We will update residents as soon as possible.”

A spokesperson for Insurance Claims Accommodation Bureau (ICAB), specialists in providing emergency accommodation, said its team was working extremely hard alongside the Mosaic relocation team, its insurers and residents to "ensure customers are in accommodation as quickly as possible and for the correct duration of stay".

Added safety measures

In a statement, RBFRS said it was working directly with the building’s management company to assist it in meeting its legal duties.

"As a result of this, they have now added additional interim fire safety measures, such as providing extra staff to continually patrol the building," the statement added.

"The building has also adapted its evacuation strategy to simultaneous evacuation during this period, until remediation works are complete."

The service said that the management company should "take suitable steps to ensure appropriate fire safety measures are in place for the building."

The RBFRS added it will robustly engage with the management company to ensure appropriate fire safety measures are in place for those remaining in the property and in readiness for those families awaiting to return to their homes.