TOWER BLAZE
Fire breaks out at top of 17-storey London tower block as 100 firefighters rush to scene
A FIRE has broken out at the top of a 17-storey tower block.
Around 100 firefighters and 15 engines have attended the flat blaze.
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Half of a five-room flat on the 15th floor of the block is alight and part of the roof is also on fire in Bromley, South London.
Black smoke can be seen billowing over the area as flames shoot from the top of the high-rise building.
No injuries have been confirmed and it is not clear how the fire started.
Niki Herring, 46, who works in digital marketing, spotted the smoke from her home more than a mile away in Shortlands.
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She said: "I looked out the window and could see the fire from here.
"It was particularly shocking with recent tragedies like Grenfell in mind.
"I just hope everyone got out okay. You would hope it would have good safety procedures being a new build.
"We could see firefighters spraying their jets up from within the building to get it under control. Their bravery is incredible."
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Josh Gill, 29, a Co-op team leader from Bromley, said: "I literally live on the doorstep.
"I was in my flat and my mother-in-law came over to pick up my wife's niece who stayed over last night, and as she came she said about the fire and saw all the fire brigade appear and (I) went to have a look.
"Some people were upset and crying whilst others were shocked and confused as to what was going on. The fire brigade are still here and you can see people who live in the flats evacuated in the church."
"It is scary to see this right on the doorstep as I have a family."
A man living near the tower said he saw flames burning "ferociously" on the building.
Rowland Leslie, 63, said: "I was just walking down to come to Bromley and I don't think it had started not long before that because the fire engines were just coming.
"Where there is the slant of the building there are balconies and flames were burning ferociously at the start.
"I have been in Bromley for over an hour and where I was it looked like the fire had been put out but in the last 20 minutes it looks like it must have started up again."
The block is believed to be relatively new and has a cinema and restaurants below in St Mark's Square.
Ambulance crews and the Met Police confirmed they are at the scene and that road closures are in place.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We were called at 12:18pm today to reports of a fire at a building in Bromley.
"We have sent an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and members of our Hazardous Area Response Team.
“The incident is ongoing and we are working with our emergency service colleagues.”
The Fire Brigade's 999 Control centre received 88 calls alerting them to the blaze.
Fire crews have come from Bromley, Beckenham, Addington, Woodside, Lewisham, Forest Hill, Sidcup and Croydon and surrounding fire stations.
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Station Commander Colin Digby said: "Crews are making steady progress.
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"This is going to be a protracted incident and we expect our crews to be on scene for several hours to come."
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