Over 100 evacuated after Swiss Cottage tower block blaze

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Communities, Local Government

More than 100 people have been evacuated following a fire at a 22-storey council tower block in North West London last night.

Some 40 firefighters were called to Taplow tower in Swiss Cottage - part of the Chalcots estate - just after 10pm last night to deal with the blaze at the junction of Winchester Road and Adelaide Rd, NW3.

Crews said the fire - which took over three hours to put out - gutted a four-room flat on the 17th floor, but that no-one was injured.

One man left the building - owned by Camden Council - before the London Fire Brigade (LFB) arrived and a further 130 people were evacuated from the building to a local community centre.

Station Manager Rod Horton who was at the scene said: “This was a big block of flats and at this time of night a lot of people were inside the building. Crews worked extremely hard to get the fire under control and to confine the fire to just one flat on the seventeenth floor. Thankfully no-one was injured.”

Firefighters said the cause of the fire is under investigation.