Bayswater fire: smoke billows from flats in west London street after blaze breaks out

Fire: Lancaster Terrace
Twitter/@nelsontaxi
Rachel Blundy17 November 2015

Smoke was seen billowing from the top of a block of flats in west London this afternoon after a fire broke out.

One woman was taken to hospital after suffering burns to her hands when the blaze sparked in a fifth floor flat on Lancaster Terrace in Bayswater.

A second person was taken to hospital for smoke inhalation, the London Ambulance Service said.

Six fire engines, carrying about 35 firefighters, were sent to tackle the flames just after 2.30pm, a spokeswoman for the London Fire Brigade said.

Firefighters from North Kensington, Chelsea, Soho, Euston, Clapham and Stanmore fire stations were at the scene, she added.

Mark Nelson, a black cab driver, said he saw smoke pouring out from a fifth-floor balcony.

He said: "I was coming around the one way system and there was one fire engine parked in Lancaster Terrace, while smoke was billowing from a balcony.

"I went around the corner and then three more fire engines turned up.

"They were already spraying water into the balcony.

"There were handfuls of people standing on each street corner."

He added: "When I looked up and saw thick black smoke I was a little bit shocked but [the firefighters] looked to have it under control. It is not something I see in London every day."

The cause of the fire, which was brought under control within an hour, is not yet known, the London Fire Brigade said.

Station Manager Kevin McKenzie, who was at the scene, said: "Crews acted quickly to stop this fire from spreading to neighbouring flats and managed to confine it to the flat where it started."

A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: "We sent an ambulance crew, two responders by car and an incident response officer to the scene.

"We treated two patients. One for burn injuries and the second for smoke inhalation. They were taken to St Mary's Hospital."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in