Whitechapel fire: Residents claim they heard no alarms, as blaze breaks out in London high-rise
A large fire which broke out on the 17th floor of a block of flats in east London, has been contained.
At the height of the blaze at the high-rise in Whitechapel High Street, the capital's fire service sent 15 engines and 125 firefighters.
Witnesses described "awful scenes", with large panels of glass falling hundreds of metres to the ground and smoke pouring out of the windows.
Some residents said they did not hear any fire alarms going off in the building. Others told Sky News they saw the fire being posted on social media before the building management alerted them.
Station Commander Chris Jenner said it had been the "professionalism, hard work and quick actions of control officers and firefighters" that had limited damage to the block and prevented serious injuries.
Three commercial units underneath the railway arches also caught alight, as well as four cars and a telephone box.
Crews rescued a woman who had became trapped on the 17th floor and at one point, flames began to spread to a balcony on the 18th. Fire could later also be seen through a window on the 19th floor.
A drone and a helicopter hovered near the building as firefighters worked to bring it under control.
Sharon Atwal who lives on the 16th floor - directly underneath the seat of the fire - told Sky News it had been "terrifying".
She said: "We didn't know until basically people were banging on the doors and telling us 'Get out! Get out!'
"Then by the time I've opened the door, our hallway is filled with smoke. And we literally just had to leave our flats immediately.
"I didn't even know where the exits were, it was terrifying"
'No alarm'
Rachel, from Nottinghamshire, who did not want to give her last name, said she was staying at a friend's flat on the 10th floor of the block as she visited London to celebrate her 50th birthday.
She said she did not hear an alarm and had been "really shaken" by the incident.
"I saw the buses turning around outside and I thought something like a car accident had happened on the street," she said. "I never thought for a second that there could be a fire."
She said she put her head out into the corridor and heard a young boy scream: "Get out, there's a fire."
Rachel added: "If it had not been for him I would have had no idea there was a fire. There was no alarm on the 10th floor."
Lynn Ling, 25, a London School of Economics student from China who lives on the 20th floor with her husband Yuri, said the incident had been "very scary".
She also said she heard no warning sounds.
"I did not hear an alarm. I think there was a fire alarm on the ground floor, but I could not hear it clearly on the 20th."
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he had been in "close contact" with London Fire Brigade's commissioner Andy Roe throughout the incident.
Randall & Rittner - who manages the residential flats from floor 14 and above - said its "fire strategy" for floors 12-21 was a "stay put" policy.
This means a "smoke ventilation system will activate, but there are no audible alarms in apartments and common areas," a statement explained.
It went on: "It is for the fire brigade to decide on whether the building needs full or partial evacuation depending on the situation they find on arrival."
According to property developer Hondo Enterprises, which sold the building in 2018, it is a 22-storey mixed use development consisting of more than 7,000 square feet of retail area, 97,000 square feet of commercial office space and 207 residential apartments.
It is located over Aldgate East Tube station between the City, the financial heart of London, and neighbourhoods Aldgate and Spitalfields.
Fire crews from Old Kent Road, Lambeth, Soho, Whitechapel, and surrounding fire stations were sent to the scene.
The cause is not yet known.
