Six hundred firefighters from all over the country observed a minute's silence for the six people who died in a house fire in Neasden. The firefighters have been competing at the UK's biggest firefighter event at the Excel Centre.

Six fire engines and around 30 firefighters were called to a serious house fire on Sonia Gardens in Neasden, London in the early hours of Saturday morning (24th September). The ground floor and first floor of the two storey semi detached house was badly damaged by the fire.

A woman aged 41 and five children: three girls aged 14, 13 and 9 and two boys aged 5 and 2 were killed in the blaze. Two further people - a man aged 51 and a girl aged 16 escaped from the house before firefighters arrived at the scene, both were injured and were taken to hospital by ambulance.

Chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, Cllr Brian Coleman, said: "My deepest sympathy is with the family and friends of the deceased and these tragic deaths will make us even more focused on the work we do to preventing fires from happening in the first place. This authority has seen the trend for fire deaths come down dramatically but this horrendous incident shows how destructive fire can be."

London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson said: "Firefighters arrived within minutes of the call; they worked extremely hard and did all they could in difficult conditions. Our thoughts and sympathies are with the families of those who died in the fire."

Fire crews were at the scene within minutes of the brigade being called about the fire - the first fire engine was there within four minutes and the second was there within 7 minutes. Metropolitan Police and London Ambulance Service crews were also at the scene.

The brigade was called at 0050 and the fire was under control by 0250. Firefighters from Willesden, West Hampstead, North Kensington and Park Royal fire stations were at the scene. The cause of the fire is not known at this stage and is under investigation by the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade's fire investigators.

 

Posted September 26th, 2011 at 0915 by Andrew. Comment by emailing: andrew.lynch@pavpub.com