Tenants in Cheshire’s 21 tower blocks will receive visits from Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service over the coming days to provide reassurance in the aftermath of the tragic inferno at Grenfell Towers in London.

The horrific blaze has so far claimed 12 lives and left more than 70 people injured.

Residents had reportedly raised fire safety concerns for several years before the blaze that engulfed the block of flats in west London in the early hours of Wednesday, according to a community action group.

A Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman said: “Following this morning’s tragic fire at Grenfell Towers in London, while we cannot speculate about the cause of the fire, we can provide reassurance to the residents of the 21 high rise blocks across Cheshire.

“Every high rise is regularly inspected for fire safety by the service’s prevention and protection teams, accompanied by operational firefighters, and these teams will be visiting all of them over the course of the next few days to provide reassurance to residents.

Grenfell Towers in West London which was destroyed by a severe fire overnight
Grenfell Towers in West London which was destroyed by a severe fire overnight

“The service places a high priority on operational training for all incidents including high rise accommodation buildings and this training is given to all operational firefighters and incident commanders as well as to new recruits who also visit high rise blocks as part of their initial training.

“The training is carried out in various forms including realistic on-site exercises, virtual incidents in the incident command training suite, which has won awards for the scenarios created by the service’s training group, and classroom and e-learning courses.

“The cause of the Grenfell Towers fire will be carried out by a number of agencies, one of which will be the housing association that manages the building.

"If any Cheshire resident has any concerns about the property they live in they should contact, in the first instance, their housing association or building management who carry out full fire risk assessments which will include advice for residents in the event of a fire.”