50 residents evacuated from explosion zone

9:33am Wednesday 3rd October 2001

More than 50 residents were evacuated from their homes in South Norwood as fire fighters fought to cool burning gas cylinders dangerously close to exploding.

Arsonists are being blamed for the incident in Falkland Park Avenue on September 22 where families were forced to flee their homes during the four-hour operation to cool the oxygen and acetylene cylinders.

Residents have this week spoken of their terror as fire fighters banged on their doors at 3am telling them to leave their homes as part of a 150-metre exclusion zone.

Sub Officer Nick O'Shea from Woodside fire station said: "When we got there, there was burning petrol running down the road and a further ten cars were in danger of catching fire.

"As soon as we discovered it was acetylene and oxygen we began evacuating. The cylinders were so hot they were ready to explode.

"Acetylene is very dangerous. One of our officers has seen an exploding cylinder shoot through walls. Once it heats up it can start a chain reaction for other substances nearby.

"We evacuated the houses closest to it, set up a 150-metre exclusion zone and told everyone else to go to the back of their properties until we had it under control."

One resident, who wants to be identified only as Beverly, has only lived in Falkland Park Avenue for a few weeks and was the first person to raise the alarm.

She said: "A loud popping sound woke me up and I went to the window to see three vehicles on fire right outside my house.

"I got the kids up, called the fire brigade and started banging on the walls to wake up the neighbours. When the fire brigade arrived they told us to leave the house by our back door and get away from the area. We were terrified."

Beverly believes that if street lighting on the road had been better, the alarm could have been raised sooner.

"The lighting in this road is awful and I can't help but think that if the street had been well-lit the arsonist might have thought twice abut setting fire to those vehicles.

"We moved here from Tooting at beginning of September but now we want to move back. We just don't feel safe here anymore."

A Croydon Council spokesman said: "Our street lighting in that road is no different to any other road in the borough. There are quite a lot of trees and what might causing the lighting to appear dimmer is the density of leaves.

"We would be quite happy to look into pruning in order to improve the quality of light. "