Tottenham fire: Hero firefighter tells of huge inferno that confronted him at north London warehouse

1/5
Ramzy Alwakeel7 November 2015

One of the hero firefighters who helped conquer a massive warehouse blaze on Friday night has told how he could see the smoke from halfway across London as he drove towards it.

Simon Tuhill, 41, was one of 120 firefighters who raced to the blazing clothes warehouse in Tottenham from as far afield as Brent.

“When I got there it was very big, very well developed for such an early stage,” he told the Standard.

“There were lots of very large orange flames and lots and lots of smoke.

“When you walked down Commercial Road you could certainly feel the heat.”

Fire investigators were on Saturday working to establish what caused the fire, which gutted two warehouses and damaged a number of others nearby.

Thirty people were evacuated from their homes as the flames took hold and at its height 20 fire crews were needed to contain the fire.

“I’ve been in the job many years, so I kind of know what I’m going to be doing,” Mr Tuhill added.

Feeling the heat: London Ambulance Service's hazardous area response team faces down the inferno London Ambulance Service/@LAS_Hart
London Ambulance Service/@LAS_Hart

“But having said that when I was driving down the North Circular on blue lights and sirens I could see the smoke from Brent Cross, so I knew it was a very substantial fire.

“It just gives you that sense of: ‘We really need to get this right.’”

Mr Tuhill, a firefighter for 18 years, was responsible for getting extra water from nearby fire hydrants, as those immediately surrounding the blaze did not contain enough water for such a large inferno.

Brave: Simon Tuhill's colleagues get to work on the fire Simon Tuhill/@LFB_Brent
Simon Tuhill/@LFB_Brent

“It’s kind of weird because you have to go towards things everyone else is walking away from,” he said.

“Most people will slow down to have a look at a crash on the motorway – that’s human nature.

“For my job, I get to go to those things and try to help, so it’s just an extension of that.”

Mr Tuhill said it was too early to know whether claims circulating on social media that a firework had started the blaze were accurate.

“My colleagues from the fire investigation team can’t do much investigating when the fire’s still very severe,” he said. “They’ll be back there this morning trying to work out what happened.

“I saw those rumours but unless someone actually saw that happen it’s just speculation.”

Crews are likely to remain at the scene, in Pretoria Road, for the rest of Saturday.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in