Residents living in a block of flats have been evacuated over fire safety concerns.
Thirteen tenants living in Dawson House, in Billingham, were forced out of their homes on Thursday. Jason Allison, who lives on the ground floor of Dawson House, told how he returned home around 10.30pm and there was “about 30 Thirteen staff” at the Queensway building.
“They’ve told us we’ve got to evacuate,” the Stockton man said. “They’re putting us in hotels because they said there’s some safety work to be carried out on the lifts.” He stated that the residents were told work could be ongoing for “a couple of weeks”, however, Thirteen stated that it would be for the “next few days”.
A ‘pre-arranged safety inspection’ of the building found that smoke may not have been able to be ‘safely extracted’ from Dawson House in …