Hatfield mums’ fears over blaze flats

MUMS are calling for action after a fire in their flat block failed to set off alarms warning them to get out.

Clayton House off Lemsford Road has a history of fire – it was this block which went up in flames when it was being built back in 2007.

So when a petrol bomb was thrown into one of the flats last week, both families were shocked to be woken by police and firefighters banging on their front doors.

Mum Danielle Drummond, 23, was at home with fiance Chris Tustain, 27, and their one-year-old son Alfie.

She said: “If the police hadn’t woken us up anything could have happened.

“There’s no communal fire alarm system, only one fire alarm in the flat.

“People were screaming and running down the fire escape, then we heard a banging on the door.

“It’s terrifying. We had to stay with my mum because the whole block smells of petrol.”

Stacey Hope, a 29-year-old pole dancing instructor, was also at home in the flat directly opposite the fire with her fiance Paul Smedden, 33, and their one-year-old son Jacob.

She said: “We woke up to thick black smoke in the flat, but the smoke alarm wasn’t going off. “We wrapped our boy up and got outside, there was already a fire engine and the police here.

“It had been going on for at least 20 minutes and our alarm hadn’t gone off.

“We were freaking out, everything in the flat is everything we’ve worked for.

“How could the alarm not be going off? What if it happened again and we weren’t so lucky?”

The block is run by Granta Housing Association.

A spokesman said: “Granta regards the safety of its residents of paramount importance.

“Clayton House is a low-rise block of flats and was built to meet the building regulations part B, which required smoke alarms to be fitted within the individual properties of the building, but not in the communal areas.

“The development was signed off by building inspectors and the National House-Building Council prior to occupation.”