Ealing fire: Six in hospital after horror house fire started by ‘glass object’

Six people have been hospitalized after a light-reflecting “glass object” started a fire in a popular London suburb.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) confirmed that the object intensified the sun’s rays, directing the light onto a house in Ealing, west London. Following the resulting fire, six people were taken to hospital by ambulance after suffering from smoke inhalation.

Speaking to MyLondon, an LFB spokesman said firefighters were called to the scene on Elderberry Road at around 7pm on Tuesday night with four engines and around 25 staff attending the blaze from several nearby stations including Chiswick, Heston, Park Royal and Hammersmith. . The fire was under control by 8:25 p.m., but the organization reported extensive damage.

The blaze broke out from the first floor of the two-storey property that evening, with the six people – three of whom were children – treated at the scene before being rushed to hospital. Firefighters confirmed that the first floor of the home was completely destroyed by evening, adding earlier that the ground floor was also partially damaged.

The unusual incident prompted the LFB to issue a warning about potential fire hazards caused by the reflection of sunlight through clear glass. The spokesman said: “These kinds of fires are not as rare as you might think.

“They can happen all year round, but as we head into summer and the sun gets stronger, it’s really important to keep reflective objects such as mirrors, crystals and glass ornaments out of direct sunlight.”

Emergency services have long credited reflective surfaces as the cause of fires, with fish, jam jars and more known to concentrate the sun’s rays. Once the light is focused on a single point, the concentrated energy doses the surface and can ignite fires.

The LFB has reported several hundred house fires as being caused by this mechanism, with over 125 observed in the last half decade alone. The sunlight involved means incidents like these are much more common in the summer months. Of course, easily combustible surfaces such as wood and paper are more prone to ignition.