Residents on the 12th floor of a residential block near Grenfell Tower were forced to escape their homes today after a fire broke out inside an apartment, which was suspected to have been started by an electric bike charger.
One individual was taken to the hospital for treatment, while two others were evaluated by paramedics on the spot.
Six additional residents were taken to safety by emergency services while three persons from the property escaped their home at Stebbing House before the firefighters arrived.
Thirty people were forced to flee the building due to the fire, and one had to be escorted to safety by emergency personnel.
As the blaze took hold inside the property in Shepherds Bush, West London, dramatic photographs from the scene showed smoke pouring into the sky near to the burned out shell of Grenfell.
The fire is thought to have been started by an electric bike in the unit on the 12th floor. It’s thought that the bike was being charged at this point.
It comes just days after the horrific Grenfell Tower fire, which was commemorated with a service at Westminster Abbey.
At the occasion last week, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined bereaved families and survivors of the disaster.
Prior to the memorial service, Kate and Wills conducted a private meeting with those who had been personally affected by the catastrophe.
The fire was under control as of 10.55 a.m., according to the London Fire Brigade, and three individuals had escaped the flat before firemen arrived.
Station Commander David Bracewell said: ‘We reported to Stebbing House this morning at 9.23 to a fire reported on the 12th floor.
‘Three people from the affected flat left before the Brigade arrived. A number of other residents evacuated the building.
‘Due to the nature of the fire we have eight fire engines here and specialist vehicles dealing with the incident. The fire is now under control.
‘We’ve led one person to safety and we’ve also had 30 persons who self-migrated without the assistance of London Fire Brigade.’
He added that LFB are working with the Metropolitan Police, the local authorities and the London Ambulance Service to ensure residents could return safely to their homes.
The blaze caused damage to three floors of the building, and residents from the 10th, 11th and 12th floors have not been allowed back into their homes.
A London Fire Brigade source at the scene told MailOnline: ‘The fire started on the 12th floor, and although investigations are continuing it looks at this stage to have been from some sort of an electrical fault.
‘It is now under control and the occupants have been accounted for with no serious injuries. One person I believe has been taken to hospital.’
At least one resident suffered smoke inhalation as firefighters battled to extinguish the fire and was taken to hospital as a precaution.
A London Ambulance Service spokesman added: ‘We were called at 9.45am to reports of a fire at a block of flats on Queensdale Crescent.
‘We sent resources to the scene, including two ambulances and our Hazardous Area Response Team.
‘Two patients were assessed at the scene and another was treated and taken to hospital.’
Black smoke can be seen billowing in the sky less than a mile away from Grenfell Tower which caught fire in June 2017.
The fire claimed the lives of 72 people and injured 74 more, and it took more than 250 firefighters and 70 fire engines to put it out.
‘The first we heard that something was happening on was when neighbours started knocking on our front door this morning about 9.30am,’ said Armani Paczkowski, who lives on the sixth floor with his mother.
‘They were telling us there was a fire and that we had to get out.
‘I couldn’t see anything until I got out of the block and went round to the back and saw thick black smoke pouring out of a window on the 12th floor.
‘There was no panic or fear to be honest, everyone was quite calm.
‘The fire crews arrived not long afterwards and everyone was evacuated. I’m pleased that nobody seems to have been badly hurt.’
Another resident, on the second floor, said: ‘I could smell smoke but couldn’t see it.
‘The fire happened at the back of the block, upstairs from me so I didn’t see it.
‘It was quite frightening to begin with because Grenfell Tower is nearby and thoughts of that disaster went through my mind at first but thankfully on this occasion, the fire was under control fairly quickly with no loss of life.’
Conservative MP for Kensington Felicity Buchan described news of the fire as ‘very concerning’ and said aerial appliances had been deployed to the scene.
She tweeted: ‘Very concerning to hear about the high-rise fire at Queensdale Crescent in Shepherds Bush.
‘I am told by London Fire that 8 fire engines are there, 60 firefighters and a 32mm aerial appliance.’
Resident Ellis Hunt, 64, said lessons should be learnt from the Grenfell Tower tragedy in order to ensure people can be rescued from building on fire as safely as possible.
He added: ‘I was concerned about my neighbour realising that there’s nobody coming up. Who was there to look about the elderly people that can’t walk or can’t move? Everybody’s frightened but they don’t know what to do.’
The West London fire occurs just days after the five-year anniversary of the horrific Grenfell Tower fire, which was commemorated with a Westminster Abbey service.
At the memorial, which was attended by MPs including Theresa May, who was Prime Minister at the time, multi-faith leaders read out the names of the victims of the tragedy.
As Mrs May and others bowed their heads in prayer after each group of names was read out, the crowd chanted in unison, “Forever in our hearts” — the motto engraved over the top of the covered-up tower in north Kensington.
The abbey bells rang out 72 times after the service, and white roses were put at the church’s door, close off Parliament Square.
The lethal combustible cladding hastened the accidental fire five years ago, which was the worst in Britain for more than a generation, and many of those who died had been told to stay in their flats.
More than 50 high-rise buildings contain the same highly flammable cladding that caused the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people five years ago.
Despite the government’s stated goal of having all hazardous cladding materials removed by June 2020, the newest numbers demonstrate that this goal has not been met.
The aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding identified by the Grenfell Inquiry as the major cause of the 2017 catastrophe was found in 486 structures over 18 meters tall.
On 111 of them, work has yet to begin, on 31 of them, it has not even began, and on 58 of them, the cladding is still intact.
The Grenfell Fire, which started with a broken fridge-freezer on the fourth storey of a block in Kensington and Chelsea, claimed more lives than any other residential fire since World War II.
The Government outlawed the type of combustible cladding used on Grenfell and promised to remove what was left eighteen months later.
However, the plans were stymied when leaseholders in some of the impacted properties were told they would have to pay for the repairs themselves.
Many of them found themselves in a Catch-22 situation, unable to afford repairs yet unable to sell their homes due to the labor required.
Now, 45 homebuilders have agreed to pay £2 billion to replace the dangerous cladding, thanks to a deal brokered by Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up.