Elderly man dies in south London house fire
Senior Correspondent Simon Harris went to the scene
An elderly man has died following a house fire in south London.
The London Fire Brigade attended the call out to the townhouse Onslow Road, Richmond yesterday evening and they managed to get it under control two hours later.
Part of the ground floor was damaged by the fire and a man was found in the home, and sadly pronounced dead at the scene.
Neighbour, Ian Manning, told ITV London News he was alerted to the fire via a motion sensor alert on his front door camera.
"I had a look outside and saw the fire service the few people who had camped on our drive. I looked across the road saw smoke bellowing out of number 73.
“I’m obviously really shocked. To be honest we didn’t know who lived there but looking at the property the lights were out. So it really was quite a shock when we saw the LFB website that there had been a fatality."
Rob Davis, London Fire Brigade, Group Commander told ITV London News: “We unfortunately did find a male who was deceased and the fire is under investigation jointly with Met Police colleagues and the London Fire Brigade.
"We actually had ten firefighters inside the building with fire jets working from the fire engines that attend and we had the fire under control within about 25 minutes.
He added: "Crews when they turned up on arrival were faced with a fully developed fire. Which engulfed pretty much the whole floor.
"As soon as they opened the front door they could see the fire fully developed within the ground floor.
"At that point they were beaten back and had to use jets to progress into the fire and control that whilst simultaneously further crews came in and started searching the ground floor.
"Our thoughts are with the friends and family of the deceased at this point."
The London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police are investigating the cause of the fire.
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