Fire hazards similar to those found at Grenfell Tower have been discovered at a block bought by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to house survivors of the disaster that killed 72 people. To the horror of residents, round the clock “waking watch” patrols started on Friday at Doveberry Place in north-west London after a risk assessment uncovered problems with fire protection between floors, doors and ventilation. The residents include Hermine Harris, 81, who escaped from the seventh floor of Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017 and moved into the brand-new block in May 2019. Of the nine flats, four are occupied by former Grenfell residents and the rest from Grenfell’s neighbouring walkways. The block was bought by RBKC to house traumatised residents, some of whom had spent long periods living in hotels. “They have put us in a building deemed fit for people to live in and now they are telling us it’s a fire hazard,” said Yvonne Harris, Hermine’s daughter. “Mum is in shock and doesn’t know what to do. She feels, how can they do this to me again? We have been going through trauma for the last three and a half years and now we’re adding further trauma.” Branislav Lukic, who escaped from the 11th floor of Grenfell and then had to be rescued from a second fire in temporary accommodation, was also housed at Doveberry Place. “Is this really happening to us again?” he said. “I have no words to explain how I feel. Grenfell will repeat again. It’s just a matter of time.” He said that after a fire in the apartment next door to his temporary accommodation after Grenfell, “they promised they would sort me out … I spent another year in a hotel, and now this,” he said. Some of the residents were terrified, said Jhangir Mahmood, a lawyer acting for some of those involved. He said it “beggars belief that RBKC would place vulnerable and traumatised former Grenfell residents in a building which is not fire safe”, and added that he was considering legal action on behalf of Harris. “It is the height of incompetence,” Mahmood said. “One would expect them to carry out a fire risk assessment before putting them in there, and not years afterwards. They must now be transparent and reveal when they first realised this problem.” Kim Taylor-Smith, the deputy leader of RBKC, said: “We have spoken with the families and we understand how worried they must be. Work is already underway to fix the issues with their building, which we bought from the private sector very recently. “Sadly, this is part of a national issue. This council, like many others, no longer has faith in the building industry and checking industry. That is why we carry out our own safety checks for our peace of mind, and most importantly for the peace of mind of our residents.” This week the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, announced a £30m fund to help pay for waking watch patrols that have been operating on hundreds of buildings deemed dangerous by fire safety inspectors after the fire at Grenfell.