London Fire Brigade - Camden Market Blaze
3 April 2008
On Saturday 9 February a major fire broke out in Camden Market. The first call to the London Fire Brigade’s control room came in at 7.10pm. Just four minutes later a fire engine was on the scene, with a second engine four minutes after that. This was closely followed by more crews and fire engines. The total attendance was 20 fire engines and about 100 firefighters.
The severity of the fire meant that LFB crews had to work hard to stop it from spreading further. Risk assessments at the scene and extensive training reduced the potential danger to firefighters but, as at all fires, firefighters faced an element of risk to their own safety.
Around 550 people were evacuated from the area, including 100 local residents who had to leave their homes as a precautionary measure. Despite the severity of the fire there were no reported causalities, injuries or rescues.
The fire was surrounded within three hours of the Brigade being called and was completely under control by shortly after 1am on Sunday. Firefighters stayed at the incident throughout the night damping down deep seated pockets of fire.
An investigation has begun into the cause of the fire.
The fire safety regime for covered markets changed on 1 October 2006 when the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 came into force. This legislation places an emphasis on risk reduction and requires the people responsible for any non-domestic premises to carry out a risk assessment and act upon the findings. In the case of markets this would be both individual stall holders and market owners.