Fire crews rescued eleven people, including five children, from a fire in a block of flats on South Street in Enfield yesterday evening.
Before firefighters arrived the Brigade’s 999 Control officers gave fire survival guidance to a mother who was trapped in one of the flats with a young child and a baby. She was very distressed when she called 999 as she couldn’t leave her flat due to the thick smoke.
Brigade Control Duty Manager Keith Diamond said: “Control officers were able to calm the lady down and provide vital fire survival guidance, including telling her to keep low and open a window. The control officer remained on the phone until firefighters wearing breathing apparatus reached the flat to rescue her and her two children and lead them to safety.
“Meanwhile control officers were speaking to other people in the flats and this allowed them to provide the initial fire crews arriving on the scene with rapid information on the location and number of people trapped inside the building so they could quickly identify where they were.”
Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus rescued eight other people from the block. Two of those rescued were taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service and a man was treated at the scene, all three were suffering from smoke inhalation. A woman and a child also left the building before the Brigade arrived.
A stairwell on the second floor of the block of four floors was completely destroyed by the blaze.
Five fire engines and around 31 firefighters and officers from Enfield, Edmonton and Chingford attended the incident.
The Brigade was called at 1841 and the fire as under control at 2016.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
