MORE than 100 firefighters have been battling a blaze in East London which has swept through two floors of a school where a children’s summer holiday play scheme has been running. Emergency crews were called to Thomas Fairchild Primary in Hoxton where the roof has been in danger of collapse
MORE than 100 firefighters have been battling a blaze in East London which has swept through two floors of a school where a children’s summer holiday play scheme has been running.
Emergency crews were called this-afternoon to Thomas Fairchild Primary in Hoxton where the roof has been in danger of collapse.
The children at a nearby summer play scheme were evacuated and led to safety when the fire broke out at 1.30pm.
PLAYGROUP
The children were in a wooden hut used by an under-5s playgroup in the grounds of the school in Napier Grove. None of the youngsters were in danger.
Eye-witnesses saw flames reaching through the roof 40ft above the street as massive clouds of thick, acrid smoke billowed across the neighbourhood.
“The flames have reached the roof and its buckling and about to collapse,” said Bill McCarthy c, manager of Holborn photographic studios in Eagle Wharf Road.
POLICE CORDON
“The police have put up an exclusion’ zone around the building and neighbours have been advised to shut their windows because of the smoke.”
Police cordoned off the surrounding area as crews from 11 fire stations in East London, North London and the City were brought in.
The pupils are unlikely to be able to return to the school in September. The cause of the fire is being investigated.
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