Residents in Bexleyheath are in shock today after a deadly house fire killed four members of the same family on Thursday evening.
One of the four victims was a woman who was just visiting from Sri Lanka and was supposed to fly home today, a family member who preferred not to give their name told MyLondon reporters at the scene.
The woman had come to the UK to visit her grandchildren, a four-year-old boy and an 18-month-old girl. Both children also tragically died in the fire, along with their mother.
READ MORE: Bexleyheath fire: Four dead including two children after horrific blaze
Two children were among the dead in Thursday’s house inferno in Bexleyheath
(Image: MyLondon)
One man who survived the fire is in hospital after breaking his legs after jumping out the window. He is believed to be the brother-in-law of the mother who perished.
His condition is not thought to be life-threatening.
The father of the family, who works in an off-licence, was not at home when the fire broke out at around 8.30pm on Hamilton Road.
The scene was attended by six fire engines and around 40 firefighters.
The fire ripped through the house on Hamilton Road at 8:30pm on Thursday
(Image: Aaron Chown/PA Wire)
Although crews in breathing apparatus actually managed to pull out the victims from the first floor of the house using a nine-metre ladder, all four died at the scene.
A friend of the father said he had returned home to see his house on fire.
“He tried to save them but he couldn’t,” said Mayil Mathivathanan, the father’s friend.
The father, identified by his first name Logan, is currently said to be staying at his sister’s house in Abbey Wood, where he is coming to terms with the loss of his mother, his wife and his two children.
According to a relative, the family had moved into the property three months ago.
Mourners have been leaving flowers at the end of Hamilton Road this morning in memory of those who lost their lives
(Image: Phil Harris)
Speaking to MyLondon, a neighbour saw a ‘distraught’ man collapse against a wall as fire engulfed the house.
Stay-at-home mum Ling, 36, says she heard the children screaming in the house, and that paramedics performed CPR on the two children.
Fighting back tears, the neighbour, who lives 10 metres away from the house where the fire struck, told MyLondon: “We saw a fire fighter carry two kids and the ambulance tried to do CPR for them.
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“They tried really hard, they didn’t give up. They tried to keep doing CPR and then they stopped and I saw that the baby had passed away.”
Metropolitan Police forensic teams were on scene this morning.
The cause of the fire has not yet been established, though the Metropolitan Police has released a statement to say it is not thought to have been started deliberately.
Fire crews from Bexley, Erith, Plumstead, Lee Green and Sidcup were all called out.
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