The weekend’s Bellway Homes fire in Barking, east London, highlighted the “unsuitability” of timber as a construction material, according to the head of the British Association of Reinforcement.

The fire destroyed 20 flats of the De Pass Gardens scheme and damaged nearly a dozen others. The blaze was tackled by more than 100 firefighters on Sunday afternoon.

While Bellway said it was conducting its own enquiry into the fire Steve Elliott, chairman of the BAR – which represents manufacturers of heavyweight reinforced concrete – said the blaze was “a further example of why timber was not a suitable construction material, whether built or under construction, structural or decorative”.