A 44-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of arson after a late-night fire at a home on Fordwych Road in Kilburn led to the rescue of six people.
Police are treating the blaze as suspected arson. Emergency services were called to the residential street at 10.36pm on Thursday, September 24, following reports of a fire at a residential address. Nine fire engines and around 65 firefighters were sent to the scene, where crews found a home with the fire spreading through most of the ground floor.
Two people were rescued from the first floor of the property, while a further four were helped down from the second floor using ladders. Another person had already managed to get out of the building before the brigade arrived.
Everyone rescued was checked over at the scene for smoke inhalation by the London Ambulance Service. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed there were no injuries caused by the fire itself.
Crews from across north-west London respond
The scale of the response reflected the seriousness of the incident. Crews were drawn from West Hampstead, Paddington, Willesden and other nearby stations, and firefighters worked through the night before bringing the blaze under control by 1.52am. Most of the ground floor of the property was damaged by the fire.
The brigade’s 999 control officers received seven calls about the fire and gave fire-survival guidance to people inside the building until firefighters could reach them. Control room teams have faced similar pressure during other major incidents in the capital, including the Poplar tower fire, after which 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.
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.
