London Evening Standard/London


A woman died and two men were badly injured after they leapt from a window as a blaze tore through a second-storey flat yesterday.
A man died inside the flat after a blast above a parade of shops in Hounslow that “shook the street”.
Stuart Wells, 34, was in a pub garden overlooking the scene.
He said: “Three people were screaming at the window. They were trying to break the window with a chair. There were flames and I could see their faces. It was horrific.
“The woman flung herself out of the window and crashed into a telephone box head first. It happened so quickly there was nothing anyone could do. The images will stay with me for the rest of my life. The explosion was like a bomb. The whole street shook.”
The woman is believed to be 30.
The men who also jumped, aged 18 and 37, suffered multiple injuries.
Fire investigators were treating the fire as “suspicious”. More than 50 people had to be taken to safety from their homes as the flames spread through neighbouring flats and into the roof of the properties in Central Parade, just off Church Road at around 1.30am.
Two police officers who were first on the scene gave mouth to mouth resuscitation to the three victims on the ground before ambulance crews arrived.
Deelip Silwal, 26, who lives opposite the flats, said neighbours brought a mattress in an attempt to cushion the landing, adding: “When I got outside there was a woman on the floor. There was a man, at the window. He had no choice, he just jumped. About 25 feet I would say. He fell on his feet but was on the ground unconscious, he was not moving.
“The woman, she was unconscious as well, not moving. She looked dead. Her face had no expression.
“I saw two other people at the window so one other man went to get a mattress so they could jump on to it. The police and firefighters came and told us to stand back.
“It was very scary because the fire was so big we thought it might spread. We were worried for the other people in the flat, that is why we got the mattress for them to jump. The police told us to get bedding and blankets for the people, so we did. It was hard to see after that because there was so many fire and ambulance people there.”
Hairdresser Ewa Glowacka, 36, was woken up by the explosion and raced onto the street with her 14-year-old daughter. She said: “I saw the body of the woman. I have cut her hair before, she was a lovely lady.”
Glowacka and other neighbours were being helped by the emergency services at a temporary refuge centre in Heston Village Hall. She added: “The roof has literally been blown off my building.”
Amrita Singh, 32, another neighbour, said: “We heard horrible screaming, ‘Help me, help me.’ It was so horrible we are all stunned by this. The explosion was huge.”
The two men who survived after jumping from the window were treated at the scene by police officers and ambulance crews. They were taken to St Mary’s Hospital and their condition yesterday was described as serious.
Eight fire engines and around 58 firefighters from across west London battled to control the blaze which was brought under control at around 4.20am. It is believed at least 10 people lived in the three-bedroom flat. A fire service spokesman said: “We are not ruling anything out and that includes a gas explosion.” The fire is believed to have started in a back bedroom at the flat. The woman who died was married to one of the men seriously injured.