Rush Hour Traffic Disruption After Roof Collapses During Fire in West Ealing
Intense blaze at block of flats
A blaze at a block of flats in West Ealing caused rush hour disruption yesterday afternoon.
Thirty firefighters were called out to Chapel Road, off the busy Uxbridge Road to deal with the fire on the third floor of the block - which started around 3.20pm.
Traffic was diverted from the Uxbridge Road which led to major disruption in the area.
Part of the roof of the block of flats collapsed due to the intensity of the fire.
This photo courtesy (c) Francesca Bussey (via twitter)
Eye witness Emma May was in the area at the time and called the fire brigade:
'' I was pushing my toddler up Chapel Road to go conker-collecting in Walpole Park when I smelled smoke. I could see copious amounts pouring through the tiles on the roof of the house.
''More alarmingly, I could hear the very loud crackling of burning wood. A man was standing opposite making a phonecall. I shouted, are you calling 999? He didn't reply so I got my phone out and called 999 myself. I continued up the road looking for the name of the road to give the LFB and after doing so, told them I was leaving the area as I had a small child with me.
'' We were well into the park before I heard the sirens - on checking my call records I could see it was 7 mins since I'd called 999 at 15:22.''
Picture via twitter from @missybrar
The fire was in the loft of a converted terraced house.
Wembley Fire Station Manager, Pushminder Vagarwal, , said: “When firefighters arrived at the scene they were faced with a large and well developed fire. Due to the intensity of the flames, part of the roof has collapsed so our crews tackled the fire from the outside of the building using an aerial platform.
“It’s fair to say it’s been a challenging job but firefighters are working extremely hard to bring the fire under control.”
The Brigade was called at 1521 and the fire was under control by 1911.
Photo courtesy of of @cgilson42 via twitter
Crews remained at the scene during the evening damping down deep seated pockets of fire.
Firefighters from Ealing, Southall, Northolt, Wembley and Chiswick were called to the scene. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
22nd September 2011