IT WAS just past 2pm on 13th October when the first of six calls came into the London Fire Brigade control centre, reporting a fire in a flat which was part of a terraced house in Westfield Gardens, Romford.

Crews from Ilford, Dagenham, Hainault and other nearby fire stations attended the blaze. They found that four adults and a child had left the building before the firefighters arrived, and there are no reports of any injuries. Firefighters used a 32m turntable ladder to observe the fire and a thermal imaging camera to see how it was spreading. This helped them extinguish the fire at 4.31pm.

The building came off badly. The roof and rear decking of the terraced house were completely destroyed. Part of the ground floor and around half of the first floor were damaged.

The London Fire Brigade has announced that they believe that the fire was caused by refracted sunlight. If sunlight coming in through a window and strikes something which intensifies the light and sends a second beam onto something, like paper, which can burn, the heat contained in the light can be enough to make that substance catch fire.

A London Fire Brigade spokesperson explained that this is not unusual, sayin, “Fires caused by refracted and reflected sunlight can happen all year round and are actually quite common. Our advice is to make sure that you keep mirrors, crystals, glass ornaments and other reflective items out of direct sunlight at all times.”

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