The victims of the Camberwell tower block blaze

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THE council responsible for maintaining the Camberwell tower block where six people died in a fire could face negligence charges after an expert claims shoddy alterations turned the building into a death trap.

Arnold Tarling, a surveyor specialising in public sector housing, said changes to the original design to Lakanal House may have “removed the fire protection between flats entirely”.

If an inquest into the deaths agrees with the findings Southwark Council could be liable for negligence.

Tarling made his conclusions after examining alterations carried out at Marie Curie house, the sister block to Lakanal House.

He claimed that if the same changes had been made at Lakanal, they could be the reason the fire spread so quickly between the flats.

"It is our understanding the coroner will make recommendations about the building problems and also regarding whether Southwark Council should be liable for negligence"

He told The Mirror: “When the original plasterboard ceilings were stripped out, the first part of the refit was to install a timber support - this was the first error from which everything else flows.”

He sent an unofficial report to London Fire Brigade outlining other apparent failures.

It claimed that fire-resistant boards had not functioned properly because they had not been sealed and that boards used to form firebreaks had been smashed so cabling could be installed.

A police source said: “It is our understanding the coroner will make recommendations about the building problems and also regarding whether Southwark Council should be liable for negligence.”

Southwark Council Leader Nick Stanton said: “Southwark Council and the London Fire Brigade jointly inspected Marie Curie to make sure that any similarities in design were identified and action taken to reduce the small risk of a similar incident.”

Fashion designer Catherine Hickman, Helen Udoaka and her three-week old baby, Michelle and Dayana Francisquini, her son Felipe, three, and her six-year-old daughter Thais, all died in the fire.