A company says it will carry out checks to ensure safety across its services after a woman died in a fire at one of its care homes last week.

Sequence Care Group said it had been “shocked” by the blaze at its Connington Court home in Chingford, which broke out in the early hours of Friday morning.

More than 70 fire fighters were called to a fire at the home, where eight residents and four carers had been already able to evacuate the burning building.

However, Met Police said the body of one woman, a resident at the home believed to be in her 30s, was later found inside the property.

“We are all shocked by the death of a resident in our supported living flats at Connington Court in Chingford and our thoughts are with her family,” Sequence said in a statement released over the weekend.

“We will offer them every support we can.

“The safety and well-being of our residents is always our main concern and while we believe that the processes that we have in place to ensure fire safety are robust, in the light of last night’s events we are carrying out further checks across all of our services.

“We would like to also thank the Fire Brigade, Ambulance Service and other emergency services for their rapid response and their support. It is greatly appreciated.

“We are working closely with the emergency services to establish exactly what happened to cause the fire. It would be inappropriate to make any further comment at this stage.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation, although Scotland Yard said it was not treating it as suspicious.

Chingford and Woodfood Green MP, Iain Duncan Smith, has already called for an investigation into the blaze and new rules to prevent similar incidents.

"I know there will be an investigation into how it started. What procedures does the council have in place? Have a fire procedure pinned to the wall,” Mr Duncan Smith said.

“First, the fire brigade needs to be called. It takes two seconds, then get everybody out. We need to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Connington Court caters for adults with learning disabilities and other complex needs such as epilepsy.

It was awarded a “Good” rating by healthcare watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) during its last inspection in September 2016.