Seven people including three children treated by paramedics after arson blaze tears through car park

By Davina Hyde

A fire believed to be started deliberately by reckless arsonists has left scores of families traumatised, after the blaze tore through a car park under council flats on Wednesday.

Some residents tried to rescue neighbours as the internal ground-floor garage and a car were destroyed by the fire at the three-storey flats at Baldry Gardens in Streatham.

Other residents say had the car not exploded, waking them in the early hours, they might have died.

Seven people, four adults and three children, suffered smoke inhalation and were taken to hospital by ambulance and their homes left totally blackened by smoke.

Sarbaz Barznji, 36, a resident in adjoining Ryan Court, was left shocked and traumatised after running towards a smoke-filled flat twice to try and rescue one of the residents.

He said: “I came back out and the smoke was so thick I couldn’t see anything. I was holding my face and nose with a teeshirt.

“I went back in with my phone torch and tried to kick the door down but there was too much smoke and I had to run out.

“The woman managed to escape when she grabbed one of the neighbours as they passed her flat and followed them down the stairs.”

Arson is suspected to be the cause of the blaze, and two years ago a fire was started in the same place as the blaze on June 23.

Residents of the flats have been asking Lambeth Council to provide gates at the entrance of the garage, to prevent people not from the estate, and homeless people, from gathering there and sleeping at night.

A resident who lives in Baldry Gardens with her 10-year-old daughter, described how around 3am on Wednesday morning she heard a bang, and when she looked out of the window there were flames.

She opened the front door and there was a gush of black smoke and all she could hear was “Get out, get out, run, run”.

She panicked and didn’t know whether she would be running into danger. She was scared she was going to lose her daughter.

She told her daughter: “We are going to be brave”, and covered her mouth with a pyjama top, and together they ran down the stairs through the smoke in the pitch dark to safety.

She said: “When we had the fire the first time, I had to reassure my daughter there would never be a fire again.

“Now this happened and she said to me: ‘You promised me the first time that this would never happen again’. This time she had to travel through the fire and smoke to save herself.

“No-one is helping us. No-one has asked us if we need counselling. I am constantly getting flashbacks and not sleeping at night. My daughter is terrified to go back.”

Another resident who lives in Baldry Gardens, who escaped with his partner through pitch dark smoke, said: “Everything in our home is covered in black soot.”

The flats were left smoke-damaged and uninhabitable.

Another resident who did not want to be named said: “There would have been casualties if we hadn’t heard the explosion.”

Although there was someone on the day of the fire cleaning up, since then residents have only been offered a £50 contribution by the council to clean the flats, and have not been offered any counselling, support or temporary housing.

Twenty-five firefighters and four fire engines from Norbury and West Norwood fire stations attended the fire on Wednesday, and Station Officer Simon Cook, who was at the scene, said: “We arrived to find a car fully alight in a car port underneath a block of flats. The blaze was producing a large amount of smoke in the area.

“Crews worked quickly to bring the fire under control and assisted local residents.”

The Fire Brigade was called at 3.27am and the fire was under control by 4.46am.

A Lambeth Council spokesperson said: “We put in place our emergency response when alerted to news of this fire. Once the fire brigade and the police had finished their work, we sent staff to the site to repair damaged services, such as electricity supply, to check on welfare of residents and to provide support. Re-decorating has also been arranged.

“Re-housing options were fully assessed in the wake of the incident and necessary steps are being taken. We are reviewing safety concerns at the estate, adding mobile CCTV coverage and will update residents as this work progresses.” 

The cause of the fire is under investigation by the brigade and police, and the incident is being treated as arson by the Met Police.

Anyone with information relating to this incident should call police on 101 or Tweet @MetCC quoting CAD 897/23JUN.

To remain anonymous call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit Crimestoppers_uk.org