There is a huge blaze going on, with many appliances in attendance and the A205 is being diverted.
By the way the smoke is rushing into the sky, it must be pretty hot in there, and Id guess that more than one property is affected.
I hope noone is hurt.
Awful 
Could you post a photo Ryan? Then I’ll put this out on our social channels
Is that not @Pauline’s neighbourhood?
Just gone past in a car. Sadly it looks like a house fire. Dramatic view just before the bridge of a roof all burnt through. I hope everyone is ok.
Please don’t post any photos. It’s somebody’s home and is a pretty bad fire.
Fire is in one of the properties on the stretch with the cafe, off licence and antiques shop
The access being restricted for emergency services. Would advise that people avoid the A205.
Fire is in the top level flat above the antiques shop. No one is hurt. Four fire engines on scene and ambulance and police crew. Fire is now out but there was a lot of smoke. Sounds like it might have been electrical
sorry @anon5422159 I was only running past and in any case didnt want to linger in case I got in the way
I agree - no pictures. I’m not a fan of posting pictures of traffic accidents etc either. Doesn’t add to the information we already have.
Glad to hear no one was hurt, although the trauma from house fires can be considerable for the home owners, and for the immediate neighbours too.
I’ve moved recently Andy, so haven’t seen it!
Glad no one was hurt & I’ll let Simon (owner of the antique shop) know incase he doesn’t already. This is awful
I’m gonna say, pictures do add to the information. They show how hard our emergency services work for us, the amazing job they do, and the huge response available at the drop of a hat.
Tenders from Forest Hill, Lewisham, West Norwood, Brixton, Battersea, Islington and more attended. The specialist rescue team from London Ambulance also attended and entered the premises. A number of station officers from LFB in unmarked cars, and more.
These people more than deserve their work highlighting, with careful and tasteful photos not affecting the dignity and emotions of those affected by the fire.
None the less, there was a pap being reported to the police as I passed by.
A fire engine from Beckenham went that way, politely not using its siren on a Sunday morning. We just assumed it was on ‘meet and greet’ duties somewhere and recalled a time once when a fire engine on display at Horniman Gardens suddenly had to scramble!
Aaah yes, Beckenham was there for sure, lined up at the back towards the railway bridge, thanks for the reminder. Battersea and Brixton turned up on sirens while I was there.
Always changes the mood when a tender on community duties gets called out.
*UPDATE *
I take your point. What makes me squeamish is people who just want a photo for the sake of rubbernecking.
Oh I totally agree there.
I have had my pictures shared by the Met, London Ambulance and London Fire Brigade. While they are busy working, they occasionally like to showcase what exactly they do.
There is taking pictures to tell a story and share the severity of a situation, and then there is shamelessly trying to get pictures of people in distress, which is really not what I like to do.
I hope I don’t cause offence putting these pictures up, but to me they just show how amazing our emergency services are. And just to highlight, this was the outcome of the event.
The fire badly damaged the three roomed, second floor flat and crews led a man, woman and two children to safety from the building. The man was taken to hospital by London Ambulance Service and the woman and two children were assessed on the scene by ambulance crews
There what the Americans would call a dumpster fire, looked like, outside the Jenner Practice/W9 Food and Wine on Friday evening, too.
@Baboonery Are you saying the top floor of a house on fire would be deemed a dumpster fire in the US? I’m confused.
I have notice a number of smouldering piles of burnt rubbish on the floor recently, but this was a bit bigger.
No, merely saying there was another fire with LFB in attendance, a short distance away.
Aaaah read in context now, sorry @Baboonery
Two fire brigade call-outs in two days? That’s one way of getting vale for money out of our tax money.
On a serious point, though - obviously this was a serious fire, but isn’t it a bit concerning that appliances had to be called in from far and wide to deal with it? As awful as this was, this wasn’t a major industrial fire, plane crash, tower block or terrorist incident. Does this reflect the fire engine cutbacks in each fire station? Did it leave large parts of south/southeast London significantly less protected had another fire occurred in the area?
Using tenders from a scattering of locations is a strategy to ensure sure that no area is left without cover. Has been done this way for a long time @AndyS Looks strange but is carefully planned out. As are responses to commercial properties, public buildings etc.
As one station reaches high demand, contingency instructs that the empty slots in the station are filled by tenders from other stations to protect response times.
If anything, this shows that all is working pretty well.
Things that put the fire service under pressure but show how well planned everything is are events like the two fires last week, one by the Blackwall Tunnel and one in Erith, taking a total of 174 fire fighters to deal with them. 6 to a crew… 29 fire engines. Two fires.
But still on that day there was no headline about slow response times etc.
Would be interesting to hear from LFB on exactly how they work it though.
Really interesting, @anon64893700! Thanks for that detailed (and reassuring!) answer!
Pleasure mate.
