A father is engulfed in smoke as he hands his child to a firefighter from the window of a second-storey flat in Isleworth in these dramatic photos.
Thankfully it was just a training exercise as emergency crews tested their skills at the derelict block in London Road yesterday afternoon.
Firefighters rose to the challenge as they tackled the fake fire between 12.30pm and 2pm in preparation for a genuine disaster.
Around 50 officers from stations including Heston, Heathrow and Twickenham responded to the simulated blaze. They rescued 'tenants' trapped on the second floor and 'builders' who, in the scenario, had been renovating the upper storeys.
To add to the authenticity, synthetic smoke was used and local students and staff from London Ambulance Service played casualties and trapped residents.
Station manager Craig Carter, who was in charge of the exercise, said: "It is crucial our crews are prepared to deal with a wide range of emergencies and this is one of a number of large scale training exercises that we carry out each year.
"The exercise in Isleworth was a valuable chance for our crews to further practice their response to high rise fires and the derelict office block, acting casualties and simulated fire conditions give us a unique opportunity to test that response in a realistic environment."
As well as enabling firefighters to hone their life-saving skills, the event was staged in an attempt to increase safety awareness among those living in high-rise buildings.
London Fire Brigade launched its Know the Plan campaign to ensure those living in high-rise household have fire escape plans, which research has shown is not the case for 60 per cent of people.
Half of those questioned in a survey commissioned by the brigade said they would get out of their flat even if the fire was somewhere else in the block, which can be the most dangerous thing to do due to the dangers of choking smoke.
Mr Carter said: "Living in a flat is not more dangerous than living in a house, but it’s important to know that your fire plan should be different. Flats and maisonettes are built to give you some protection from fire so if there is a fire elsewhere in the building but not inside your home you're usually safer staying in your flat unless heat or smoke is affecting you."
