Five people escape major blaze in Slough home that left it 'destroyed'

Valiant efforts from firefighters in Slough prevented a major house fire from spreading to the home next door last night (February 1).

Three crews – two from Slough and one from Langley fire stations – were called to Hughenden Road at around 7.20pm. Also provided was an Aerial Ladder Platform (ALP) from another station.

An ALP is a long ladder with a cage, designed to disperse water onto buildings from above. This is normally for use at incidents where it may be inaccessible to do so from the ground.

Fire broke out on the first floor of the house, started by a bedroom lamp that fell over onto a mattress and the heat from it caused a ‘very serious' blaze.

All five people living there escaped through the window.

Six firefighters entered the property equipped with breathing apparatus for the smoke, using two hose reels to extinguish the flames.

The fire was so 'intense', it burned through the floorboards and ceiling of the home, damaging the house all the way through and leaving it ‘destroyed.’

The ‘whole ceiling was gone’ and the fire had got into the loft, said Slough fire station.

Thanks to the early warning from a call to the fire department, the teams were able to perform a ‘great stop’, ie stopping a potentially catastrophic spread of the fire.

Flames were prevented from reaching the roof – which, it being a semi-detached property, could have caused the adjoining house to go up in smoke and ‘two properties could have been lost.’

Firefighter Lynch and his partner Firefighter Gillett did ‘an amazing job’ with the great stop, said Slough fire station.

They got into the property and up the stairs quickly to put out fire in the main bedroom.

Firefighters were there for three to four hours tackling the inferno, leaving at about midnight.