A huge fire broke out at a block of flats in East London, with ten fire engines and 70 firefighters racing to the scene.
Shortly after eight in the morning, flames were spotted emerging from a flat at the residential complex on Queens Road West in Plaistow, sending clouds of smoke skyward.
The London Fire Brigade said the fire started in a flat on the tenth floor in a block of 15, and the ‘balcony and flat interior are currently alight’.
Three men managed to flee the burning flat before the emergency services arrived and are being treated at the scene.
About thirty residents of the apartment block were evacuated, and it’s still unclear what started the fire.
The brigade was called 30 times with the first report coming in at 8 am, and the blaze was under control an hour later.
A London Fire Brigade spokesman said: ‘Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters are responding to a fire at a residential block on Queens Road West in Plaistow.
‘Traffic in the area will be impacted as crews respond.
‘The fire is located in a 10th-floor flat, in a block of 15 floors, and the balcony and flat interior are currently alight.
‘Three men left the flat before the Brigade arrived, and are being treated on scene by the London Ambulance Service. Around 30 people have been evacuated from the building.
‘The Brigade’s Control Officers have taken over 30 calls reporting the fire, with the first received at 0802. Firefighters from East Ham, Plaistow, Stratford and surrounding fire stations are currently at the scene.
‘The cause of the fire is not yet known.’
One witness took a photo of the fire from the Carter Road bridge nearby, tweeting: ‘Oi this is mad them blocks in Plaistow’ while another person commented ‘That is terrible’.
There seems to be an uptick in these fires.
As Lionel Bart wrote, ‘Fings ain’t what they used to be’, and London is not London anymore!
On a more serious side, though, I’m glad that there don’t appear to be any fatalities in the apartments, and I applaud the emergency services for acting quickly to put out the fire and save the lives of the victims.
Large cities are full of tower blocks, and more are always being constructed since they are space-efficient and are now referred to as “stack and pack” structures.
Sure, seventy firefighters is a bit much. I’m curious about the number of people that were just standing about, but because the fire department is often well-trained, I’d rather have too many personnel than not enough.
Tower blocks are grotesque in a multitude of ways. But more will be built, this time in deserted retail malls and abandoned parking lots, and when living in a block of flats, residents need to be even more cautious of leaving frying pan, cigarettes, hair straighteners et cetera unattended. Not only do they put their lives in jeopardy, but also their neighbours and carelessness is not an option in communal living situations.
They said the firefighters raced to the scene, what would we expect them to do? Take a slow walk!
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