Two people were pulled to safety following a fire in Ealing this morning (May 1).
Flames broke out in Grosvenor Parade, near Ealiing Common, in a building which included a restaurant on the ground floor, at around 5am.
A witness said he saw the flames spread to another building, and fire crews evacuated 11 people from neigbouring properties before bringing the blaze under control three hours later.
Witnesses say the fire damaged the rear of the Corner Terrace Restaurant on the ground floor and damaged other levels of the three storey building.
Scott Jones lives in Byron Road and was woken up at 5.30am by the sound of a helicopter circling above his home. He said: “I looked out of the window and thought ‘what’s going on here?’.
“There was massive amounts of smoke across the road. The smoke was pretty big. It was going up a few hundred feet in the air, the whole area was smoked out a little bit.
“There was a huge amount of police and ambulance and fire engines there. It’s a three-storey building and the whole back of it was pretty much alight. Parts of it were burnt to a crisp.
“The fire service turned up with anything and everything they had. They were pouring everything on it. At one stage I counted seven engines pouring water onto the building.
“Flames also spread to the roof area of the building next door which is the Post Office and flats above that.
London Fire Brigade say 40% of the ground floor, 50% of the first floor and 10% of the mansard roof was damaged by the fire. All of the ducting from ground floor to roof was also damaged.”
Vee Abofaor, from Leila's Moroccan and Lebanese restaurant , said the flames had been extinguished by the time he started work at midday.
Eight fire engines were at the scene and firefighters had the scene under control by at 8.30am, and were still at the scene in the afternoon.
