A hero grocer may have saved lives when he directed three men onto a roof while a fire roared over a busy East London street filling the air with acrid fumes. Ali, 42, who sells fruit and veg on Whitechapel Road, first noticed smoke and shouting just before 8am on Thursday (April 10) after a second-floor flat burst into flames above a Japanese restaurant near the junction with Fulbourne Street.
"I'm working here looking up and see smoke," Ali, 42, told MyLondon, "Someone inside is shouting, 'help me, help me, help me'. I said, 'Go from window'. I told him to go from window out. Three people went escaped. Too much flames."
Ali's boss, Mohammed, 54, also witnessed the death-defying escapes. "It was fire there, people coming out," Mohammed said, "People jumping from the window [to the roof]. There was screaming. In the end, he went up to the roof. Then, the fire brigade brought him down."
In a video shared with MyLondon, one of the blaze victims can be seen escaping a third-floor window and climbing onto the roof as grey smoke billowed from the third-floor window. Ali can be heard shouting, 'Go out' and 'Go go go'.
When the London Fire Brigade (LFB) arrived, more footage showed firefighters putting it out with a hose before sending rescuers up a ladder to deliver aid and emergency blankets to the victims. A turntable ladder was then used to help the victims down from the roof.
This afternoon, staff at Sushi N Sashima - the restaurant located below the burning flat - were furiously working to clean up the mess and damage caused by water pouring through the ceiling as a result of firefighters pointing a hose into the flats above. One staff member told MyLondon: "The water went through the restaurant."
The LFB says four fire engines and 25 firefighters were called to the scene just after 8am after a six-roomed flat went up in flames. The Brigade said three men escaped to the roof and were rescued. Once safely on the ground, they were all treated by paramedics, and two were taken to hospital. The fire was under control within six minutes of firefighters arriving.
An LFB spokesperson said: "The brigade was first called about the fire at 0803, and crews from Whitechapel, Shadwell and Bethnal Green fire stations were mobilised to the scene. Crews were able to bring the fire under control by 0809. The fire is under investigation by the Brigade's Fire Investigation Team."
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