A 44-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of arson after a late-night fire at a flat on Fordwych Road in Kilburn forced residents to evacuate their homes.
Emergency services were called to the residential street at 10.36pm on Thursday, September 24, following reports of a blaze at a residential address. Firefighters worked at the scene and the fire was extinguished a short while later.
The call came late on Thursday night, with crews attending the residential street after dark. Fordwych Road is a residential street in Kilburn, north-west London.
Residents forced to evacuate
People living at the address were forced to leave the building as crews tackled the flames and worked to make the scene safe. The evacuation echoes the ordeal faced in Poplar, where residents displaced by a tower fire spent a week in hotels stuck in “limbo”.
The London Fire Brigade was called to deal with the Kilburn blaze. Crews across the capital have dealt with a number of residential fires, including a devastating house fire in Addiscombe which gutted a heritage landmark.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed that nobody was injured as a result of the fire itself, and said enquiries were ongoing into the circumstances of the blaze. The London Fire Brigade has been approached for more information.
Man arrested at the scene
Officers arrested the 44-year-old at the scene on suspicion of arson. He was also arrested on three counts of assault of an emergency worker, an offence covering attacks on police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other frontline staff carrying out their duties.
Arson — the deliberate setting of fires — is treated as a serious criminal offence and can attract a lengthy prison sentence on conviction. As the man has been arrested on suspicion, he has not been convicted of any offence.
The man remained in custody at the time of reporting while detectives continued their investigation. No further details about the man have been released at this stage. Detectives are continuing to piece together the events leading up to the fire.
In a separate case, a county lines drug dealer was jailed for almost 13 years after being caught in Wembley following a public Wi-Fi blunder.
Witness appeal
Anyone with information about the Fordwych Road fire is asked to contact the Metropolitan Police on 101, quoting reference 7973/24SEP. Officers would like to hear from anyone who was in the Fordwych Road area on Thursday night and saw or heard anything that could assist the investigation.
