A large fire has broken out on the 17th floor of a block of flats in east London.
The capital’s fire service said it sent 15 engines and 125 firefighters to the high-rise at Whitechapel High Street.
Witnesses described “awful scenes”, with large panels of glass falling hundreds of metres to the ground and smoke pouring out of the windows.
Three commercial units underneath the railway arches were completely alight, and four cars and a telephone box were also on fire.
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The building was evacuated as the fire broke out just before 4pm
London Ambulance Service said, along with a crew, it had despatched “an incident response officer, a team leader in a fast response car and members of our hazardous area response team”.
At one point, flames began to spread to a balcony on the 18th floor before fire crews put them out. Fire could later be seen through a window on the 19th floor.
A drone and a helicopter hovered near the building as firefighters worked to bring it under control.
Lynn Ling, 25, a London School of Economics student from China who lives on the 20th floor with her husband Yuri, said the incident had been “very scary”.
Ms Ling, who was wearing a silver security blanket because she forgot her coat in the scramble to evacuate, told the PA news agency she was alerted to the fire by a friend who called her from the street at about it 4.30pm.
She said: “I did not hear an alarm. I think there was a fire alarm on the ground floor, but I could not hear it clearly on the 20th. I went out of my door, but I found there was smoke in the corridor, so I went downstairs. I forgot to take my coat. It was very scary.”
‘No alarm’
Rachel, from Nottinghamshire, who did not want to give her last name, said she was staying at a friend’s flat on the 10th floor of the block as she visited London to celebrate her 50th birthday.
She also said she did not hear an alarm and had been “really shaken” by the incident.
“I saw the buses turning around outside and I thought something like a car accident had happened on the street,” she said. “I never thought for a second that there could be a fire.”
She said she put her head out into the corridor and heard a young boy scream: “Get out, there’s a fire.”
Rachel added: “If it had not been for him I would have had no idea there was a fire. There was no alarm on the 10th floor.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was in “close contact” with London Fire Brigade’s commissioner Andy Roe.
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People are urged to avoid the area near the blaze. Pic: @JamieLFC_1892
One of the brigade’s station commanders, James Ryan, who is at the scene, said a 64-metre ladder was being used.
He added: “There are significant road closures in place and we are asking people to avoid the area and keep windows and doors closed whilst firefighters work to bring the fire under control.
“The station and nearby buildings have been evacuated.”
According to property developer Hondo Enterprises, which sold the building in 2018, it is a 22-storey mixed use development consisting of more than 7,000 square feet of retail area, 97,000 square feet of commercial office space and 207 residential apartments.
It is located over Aldgate East Tube station between the City, the financial heart of London, and neighbourhoods Aldgate and Spitalfields.
Fire crews from Old Kent Road, Lambeth, Soho, Whitechapel, and surrounding fire stations are at the scene.
The cause is not yet known.
https://news.sky.com/story/fire-breaks-out-at-london-skyscraper-in-whitechapel-high-street-12560112
