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A property has been destroyed and many gardens lost after a devastating fire broke out in east London on Sunday evening.
The major blaze began at around 6.30pm, between Vallentin Road and Shernhall Street in Walthamstow.
Flames spread from a house, through numerous gardens and sheds onto a railway embankment close to Wood Street station.
At its height, the fire could be seen raging metres from railway lines, and large plumes of smoke could be seen in the air for miles.
Residents were advised to avoid the area around Vallentin Road entirely and keep their windows and doors closed.
Crews from London Fire Brigade (LFB) worked to tackle the fire, with around 120 firefighters and 20 fire engines at the scene.
Approximately 30 properties in the area were affected, with many residents evacuated from their homes - with one home completely destroyed by the blaze.
Footage and pictures from the scene shows the scale of the destruction, with walls completely burned down and rooms filled with debris and ashes.
Gardens, outbuildings and sheds were destroyed as strong winds fanned the fire and it quickly spread.
It comes amid an “extreme” threat of wildfires in the capital. Londoners have been urged to create firebreaks around gardens to protect homes.
The blaze destroyed a home in Shernhall StreetThe Standard
A number of outbuildings were damaged The Standard
The fire ripped through a number of propertiesThe Standard The fire brigade stayed at the scene overnight as efforts to fully extinguish the blaze continued, and ten gas cylinders were cooled amid fears they could explode due to the extreme heat.
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LFB Incident Commander Tom Goodall: “Crews did an amazing job of actually preventing the fire spread up the gardens into the houses in Walthamstow.
Unfortunately we did lose one house, and there has been significant damage to the residents, but it could have been an awful lot worse.”
He added that the recent very hot and persistent dry conditions, combined with high winds on Sunday evening, caused the spread of the fire to be particularly rapid.
He added: “It was hot, and it was difficult conditions, and you can imagine clambering from garden to garden is challenging to get ahead of that fire.”
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Gardens were destroyed by the railway line The Standard
Images showed the devastation caused by the fire The Standard London Overground services have been hit by the fire, with the Weaver line partly closed all day on Monday while urgent repairs to the track are carried out near Wood Street.
LFB has said that the fire is under control, with no reports of any injuries.
While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, LFB has issued further advice to Londoners to prevent the risk of future fires, especially in the hot, dry conditions of recent weeks.
Mr Goodall said: “London has got such a large expanse of green area. It is one of its great virtues is how much green space we have in London, but obviously if you're in a moorland, you're not gonna have many houses around.
“In London, we've got lots of residential, lots of urban environment, and it's that complex link between grassland and between vegetation and the urban environment which presents us with a particular challenge for wildfire.”
He said that the recent heatwave “dries everything out, creates the fuel, and then the smallest, the smallest little flame and, and that wind will exacerbate the spread”.
He added: “As we've seen with climate change across the globe, these are becoming more normal events, so we are preparing for this to be the new normal for London.
“Should we get another heat wave through the tail end of the summer, then we will be ready and prepared as we can be to support London.”

