Nearly 100 evacuated after electrical fire spreads to London block of flats

An electrical substation fire in west London has spread to a neighbouring block of flats, with residents ‘fearing the worst’ as they rushed out of their homes.

Residents in the Maida Vale area near Paddington should keep their windows and doors shut after a huge fire broke out at a substation on Aberdeen Place at about 5.30am today, with thick black smoke billowing into the air.

Around 100 firefighters are at the scene after an electrical transformer at the substation went up in flames.

The fire spread to the roof of a residential building, with around 80 people evacuated from the block of flats before it was brought under control, the London Fire Brigade confirmed.

The cause of the fire was a ‘fault on a piece of equipment in our substation,’ the UK Power Network said.

‘It was terrifying’

One resident said: ‘People were banging on our flat door getting us out this morning with shouts of ‘fire, fire’ and telling us to run. It was terrifying. I feared the worst. 

‘I grabbed my shoes and legged it.’

Another local, who lives at a nearby luxury development, said it has been ‘chaos.’

They said: ‘The smoke is so thick. I’m glad I have got a Covid mask still because I am worried about the smoke.’

Residents reported hearing ‘loud bangs, like explosions’ when the fire broke out.

Marc Whitehouse, 44, was staying at his girlfriend Adele Dillon’s place on Aberdeen Place when he woke up to ‘bangs’ that sounded like ‘scaffold planes being thrown away.’

He said his first thought was ‘who’s starting work at this time in the morning.’

Adele, 54, who uses a wheelchair, said: ‘At 6am I opened the curtains and that’s when I saw it (the fire).

‘It was popping and crackling.’

The couple left their home in a rush with their two cats and a dog, taking the animals to Adele’s mum’s house nearby.

Elderly and vulnerable residents have been displaced and have taken shelter at the Wharncliffe Gardens community centre, a council volunteer said.

Steve Pennington, who is part of the Westminster council welfare response team, said that ‘we have got residents that have been displaced and we are trying to help them as best we can’ and that ‘there’s a lot to do.’

The fire is causing a ‘considerable amount of smoke,’ which is visible from far away, the fire brigade warned.

Station Commander Paul Morgan, who is at the scene, said: ‘This is a very visible fire and there is lots of smoke. Residents are advised to keep their windows and doors shut.’

An eyewitness, who is at the scene, told Metro: ‘The flames are going higher and higher. They have to let it burn because the power is still on. They can’t fight it until the power is off.

‘They can’t put water on it until it’s off.’

The man said that one of the firefighters told him to ‘charge up his phone.’

He said he saw the size of the fire grow from about 10 feet to ‘about 70 feet’ in the space of an hour.

There have been no reports of any injuries.

One local claimed that firefighters fear the fire could impact the electrical supply ‘across the city,’ describing it as ‘a nightmare.’

However, UK Power Networks told Metro that the ‘isolated incident’ has not ‘interrupted power supplies.’

A spokesperson said: ‘Our teams are working with the fire service to make the equipment safe. This is an isolated incident and customers’ supplies were not impacted.’

Footage shows flames raging high as they reach above the roof level of nearby houses, with thick black smoke billowing into the air.

One resident in the SW7 area in southwest London said the smoke is visible for miles.

Several people have contacted the fire brigade’s control room, with around 73 calls logged alerting them to the blaze.

Metro understands that the location might be a telecommunications substation.

The fire brigade told Metro that they have sent a specialist unit to the scene that can put out electrical fires.

The substation is not thought to supply the transport network.

We have approached UK Power Networks for a comment.

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