Lea Bridge flooding: Mother and baby rescued from floods by London Fire Brigade in boat

Olivia Tobin4 October 2018

A mother and baby have been dramatically rescued by firefighters in a rubber boat from huge floods in east London.

The ‘London Spirit’ has been captured in London as neighbours came together to battle through a huge flood.

Children were filmed wading through several feet of water to get to school after a burst pipe flooded a Hackney housing estate.

Dozens of residents' cars were completely submerged by the rising floodwater. Homes have also reportedly been damaged as a water pipe burst near Lea Bridge Road.

Max Scott-Slade, a resident, has estimated two to three metres of water have surrounded his home and said a car park has been overrun with water.

LFB firefighters have been pictured in east London
Paul Wood

Flats on the first floor appear to be flooded by the huge amount of water and people were looking to “move their records upstairs”, said Mr Scott-Slade.

Thames Water have told the Standard a team are working to fix the problem and sort out what must be a “difficult time” for residents.

Firefighters were also sent to the area to help deal with the flood in the underground car park.

The emergency service said it used an inflatable boat to help rescue a man from a flat and a woman from a shop.

Mr Scott-Slade said he was woken by the noise of a car alarm and when he looked out the window he saw the vehicle “under water with its lights flashing”.

Cars were seen submerged by water
Paul Wood

Neighbours of his, he said, were trying to battle through the flood with their wellies on, while schoolchildren were braving the journey to school in just their socks.

He said: “We could see kids all climbing out of the windows, they were just traipsing in their socks.”

He added that there was also a possibility his building could be evacuated to a nearby school.

The community, the 33-year-old added, were knocking on each other’s doors, trying to help and make the best of the situation.

He said it captured some of the “London Spirit”, adding: “The [emergency] services and the community has been great”.

Thames Water were on-hand to assist residents too, Mr Scott-Slade added, but had not fixed the problem as yet.

A spokeswoman for the water company said: “We’re really sorry for the disruption caused by our burst pipe affecting the area around Lea Bridge Road.

"We’ve had a large team there since the early hours working to stop the flow of water from the pipe, reduce flooding and supporting those customers affected.

“Floodwater has receded throughout the afternoon and we expect to fully stop the flow from the burst pipe tonight.

“Our next steps will be to dig down to the damaged section of pipe so we can assess what repairs are needed and continue to offer support to affected customers for as long as they need it.

“Some customers in the area may notice they have low water pressure or no water this evening as we work to re-route water around our complex pipe network to divert around the burst, but this should only be for a short period and we’ll provide updates via our social media and digital channels.”

A small number of families whose ground floor flats were flooded have been moved to temporary accommodation, Thames Water said.

Anyone else affected by the flooding will also be offered accommodation and bottled water is being provided to those with affected water supplies.

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