London Fire Brigade (LFB) released thermal imaging highlighting the scale of a serious fire in Beckenham yesterday (March 27).

Twelve fire engines and around 80 firefighters were rushed to a textile warehouse on Cricket Lane in Beckenham on Wednesday after receiving reports of a serious blaze in progress at the property at 8.21am.

Around 30 people left the building before fire crews arrived.

One of the latest images released by the LFB showed the extent of the blaze that firefighters from Beckenham, Forest Hill, Woodside, West Norwood, Bromley Greenwich, Norbury, Clapham and Milwall Fire Stations were forced to battle yesterday.

It was taken by an aerial drone used by the LFB to monitor the extent of the fire while it was in progress Wednesday, "supplying pictures to incident commanders giving aerial views and thermal images," LFB said.

Bright pink, orange and red areas in the image showed what LFB described as "the deep seated pockets of fire" their crews tackled at the scene of the fire — believed to have happened at Chris Carey’s Collections warehouse.

As News Shopper reported Wednesday, Station Manager Lee Sparks of the LFB said that crews remained in place through Wednesday in order to bring the fire under control and recommended residents in the area keep all windows and doors shut to avoid the copious amounts of smoke generated by the fire.

Mr Sparks said: "When firefighters arrived they were faced with a large fire in a single storey warehouse. A large quantity of clothing is alight and the fire had spread to the roof of the building. Fire crews have been working hard to bring the fire under control but there are some deep seated pockets of fire so it is likely that they will remain at the scene for some time.

"We would ask people nearby to keep their windows and doors shut for the time being as there is still quite a lot of acrid smoke."

Meanwhile, LFB Bexley, who also sent fire crews to help tackle the blaze, praised the Salvation Army Wednesday evening after revealing the charitable organization had provided essential refreshments for firefighters working to tackle the blaze. 

LFB Bexley said: "Thanks, as always, to the Salvation Army who turned out today to provide refreshments for our crews working at the textile warehouse fire in Beckenham. Your support is always much appreciated."