Three people have been taken to hospital after a fire broke out in the early hours of Thursday morning at a terraced house in Northolt, west London.
The blaze on Vincents Path was reported to the London Fire Brigade just before 4.20am, with the first of seven emergency calls from the area coming in to the brigade’s 999 control room.
Firefighters from Northolt, Wembley, Harrow and Southall fire stations were mobilised to the scene, where they found the property well alight. The flames had consumed the entire second floor of the house and spread into part of the roof.
A neighbouring house was also affected by the fire, and crews worked to stop the blaze spreading further along the terrace.
It took firefighters more than two hours to bring the incident under control, with the fire finally extinguished at 6.23am. A 32-metre turntable ladder was deployed as an observation tower, giving crews a vantage point from which to monitor the scene and check for remaining hotspots.
The London Ambulance Service attended the scene and took three people to hospital. Their conditions have not been confirmed.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The early-morning callout brought a large emergency response to the residential street, with seven separate calls suggesting a number of neighbours had raised the alarm after being woken by the blaze.
Vincents Path sits in a quiet residential part of Northolt, in the London Borough of Ealing, an area made up largely of family homes. Residents in the immediate vicinity are likely to have faced disruption through the early hours as fire engines and ambulances attended the scene.
Fires in terraced properties pose a particular challenge for firefighters, as flames can spread quickly between adjoining homes through shared roof spaces. In this case crews acted to protect the neighbouring property after it became affected by the blaze.
The use of a 32-metre turntable ladder as an observation tower allowed incident commanders to assess the damage to the roof from above and direct firefighters to where they were most needed as the incident was brought to a close.
The property is understood to have suffered extensive damage to its upper floors, with the entire second floor and part of the roof consumed by the flames. Emergency services remained at the scene into the morning to damp down and make the area safe.
It follows other recent callouts for the London Fire Brigade in the west of the capital, including a major industrial blaze in Harefield sparked by a lithium-ion battery.
Northolt has also seen disruption on its roads in recent months, after a serious crash shut Ruislip Road and sparked rush-hour delays, while an air ambulance was scrambled to a separate crash in the area.
The London Fire Brigade regularly reminds Londoners of the importance of working smoke alarms, advising that they should be fitted on every level of the home and tested regularly.
No further details have been released about the three people taken to hospital, and their conditions remain unconfirmed.
Seven calls were made to the brigade’s control room about the fire, the first arriving just before 4.20am — an indication of how quickly the blaze took hold and how widely it was seen across the street.
Domestic fires in the early hours of the morning are among the most dangerous, striking when most people are asleep. Fire chiefs have repeatedly urged householders to make sure they have an escape plan and that everyone in the home knows what to do if a fire breaks out.
Anyone with information that could assist investigators is asked to come forward as the investigation into the cause of the fire continues. Updates will follow as more information becomes available.
