Firefighters from Baldock, Hitchin, Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City worked together to tackle a house fire in Letchworth last night.
The crews were mobilised at about 6.50pm after reports of a mid-terraced house well alight in Newells on the Jackmans estate, with a witness telling the Comet of ‘three houses engulfed’ by a massive fire.
Six sets of breathing apparatus, three hosereels, a covering jet and a thermal imaging camera were used to tackle the blaze.
The fire, which affected the house’s roof space, among other things prompted the Stevenage crews to deploy their aerial ladder platform to support the Baldock & Letchworth team.
Hitchin and Welwyn Garden City firefighters also attended the blaze, with four engines on the scene in all.
Baldock fire watch commander Julian Stanley told the Comet: “Just as we pulled out of the station we could see the smoke.
“We arrived at the incident at 6.53pm and were confronted with thick black smoke billowing from the front door, an also across all three roofs of the terraced houses. I requested a make-up for four pumps.
“At this stage we were unsure whether everyone was out of their properties, so after making an attack on the fire the crew went to the neighbours’ house to conduct a search. It was discovered that everyone was out of all three properties.
“In total we had four fire appliances there and an aerial ladder platform. The appliances came from Baldock, Hitchin, Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City.”
Hitchin’s fire station tweeted out pictures from the incident this morning, with the hashtag ‘#teameffort’.
Thankfully, there have been no reports of injuries.
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