Emergency rescue: using a range of tall ladders, firefighters helped people escape from the first, second and basement floors
Six people had to be rescued from the basement of an Upper Norwood building last night, with 10 other residents in flats on the first and second floors being evacuated by firefighters using tall ladders. The firefighters worked “incredibly hard in challenging conditions”, according to official sources.
Eight fire engines and around 60 firefighters tackled the fire on Church Road in Upper overnight.
Six of the people rescued were taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service.
Half of the first floor was damaged by the fire.
According to the London Fire Brigade: “Six people were escorted from the lower ground floor of the building by the Metropolitan Police. Firefighters rescued 10 people from the first and second floors using a 13.5-metre ladder and a nine-metre ladder.”
One of the Brigade’s 32-metre turntable ladders was used at the scene as an observation tower to help fight the fire from above.
Station Officer Dean Juckes, the incident commander, said: “Upon arriving at the scene, we found multiple people who required rescue from the first and second floors of the building. Working incredibly hard in challenging conditions, firefighters used several ladders to bring 10 people to safety.
Early shout: first calls about the Church Road fire were received at 3.30am, and the fire was under control by 5am
“Additionally, crews worked closely with the Brigade’s control officers, who provided critical, lifesaving fire survival guidance to those still inside the building awaiting rescue.
“It is a testament to the hard work of crews and control officers that there was no loss of life or serious injury at this incident.”
Fire survival guidance is the advice given, usually over the phone, by control officers to people who are directly affected by fire, heat or smoke and cannot leave their premises. The Brigade’s fire survival guidance app enables our control officers to exchange information between the incident ground and those within a building who have contacted the Brigade.
The first emergency call was logged at 3.33am. Fire crews were mobilised from West Norwood, Woodside, Norbury and surrounding fire stations to the scene. Firefighters had the fire under control by just after 5am.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Brigade and the Metropolitan Police.
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