CORPSES were hastily removed from an undertakers as a neighbouring garage was engulfed in flames.

One body was wheeled on a stretcher down a busy main road to a hearse, in front of startled members of the public.

Firefighters battling the blaze removed a gas cylinder from the burning garage, preventing a major explosion.

Staff and customers from nearby businesses were evacuated and the site, on Old Bromley Road, Downham, was cordoned off.

Garage owner Chris Dowse, 40, of Bexleyheath, said: "It is devastating. I have lost everything. One minute you have a livelihood, the next it's taken away. I've just got to soldier on as best I can."

Gwen Humm, 54, of funeral director Francis Chappell, which backs onto the garage, said: "I noticed this black smoke billowing outside. Someone shouted: Get out there's a fire'.

"We had a hearse ready to go with the family here and we had to load up at the front of the building.

"We had one stretcher with a body which had to go back to our main service centre in Orpington. I had to take that out the front. It could have been awkward but it went without incident."

She added: "Later my brother rang me up asking if I did my own cremations."

Tony Osman, 23, manager of mobile phone shop NKO, opposite the garage, said: "It was a rip-roaring fire. I could not believe it. It was violent, swirling, with smoke billowing out."

The garage, Advance Autos, and one car inside were destroyed in the blaze, at 4pm last Wednesday.

Downham fire station commander Michael Ogwo said: "This was a very severe fire with the danger of explosion. One gas cylinder was taken out as otherwise it could have been like a bomb.

"It would have taken out the windows of nearby flats and you would have had shrapnel flying about."

A police spokesman said a 15-year-old was arrested and bailed until next week.

Witnesses should call Detective Sergeant Spencer Barnett on 020 8284 8335.

April 29, 2003 13:00