Refurb questions over deadly tower fire

A deadline for a fire risk assessment for the south London tower block where six people died in a blaze earlier this month is about to expire.

The BBC is reporting that Southwark Council has less than a day to produce the documents for Lakanal House in Camberwell, south London, that was hit by a large fire on 3 July.

The paperwork will show whether refurbishments carried out on the building in 2007 improved safety.

A council spokesman said the authority was collecting the documents.

Investigators have been waiting three weeks to see the vital risk assessment carried out two years ago.

They need it to confirm whether the replacement of windows and wall panels succeeded in negating the known fire risk.

By 2007, Southwark Council had been aware for seven years the building's construction posed a danger of helping fire spread.

Experts were astounded by the speed with which flames travelled from flat to flat when the building caught fire.

Councillor Nick Stanton, of Southwark council, said: "The fire brigade have asked us for a number of documents - we will get them to the fire brigade as quickly as we can.

"I am not going to get involved in speculation about individual documents along the way."