Cannabis found at evacuated fire-hit block of flats

A man has been arrested after cannabis plants were found at a block of flats in north London where a fire broke out, the Metropolitan Police said.

London Fire Brigade (LFB) were called to the blaze on Bakersfield estate in Islington at about 04:00 GMT which led to around 35 being people evacuated from the 10-storey building.

Enquiries into the circumstances of the fire are ongoing, police said.

The 41-year-old remains in custody after being arrested on suspicion of production or being concerned in the production of a controlled drug.

No injuries were reported and the blaze was brought under control within 90 minutes, with around 60 firefighters called to the incident.

Crews found a three-floor maisonette on the ground through to the second floor alight. The fire damaged part of every floor in the property, the brigade said.

The police force said: "Officers attended the scene and assisted LFB whilst they extinguished the fire.

"Following enquiries on scene, a number of cannabis plants were found."

Residents evacuated from the building were taken to a nearby rest centre at a church and some residents have since been allowed back inside.

Among them was Joe, who lives on the eighth floor with his pregnant partner and two-year-old daughter.

He said: "The smoke was just filling up in our flat."

He said said they struggled to find an escape route and "ran through the smoke and ran around the bridge to the other side of the block" to escape.

"My daughter, she seems ok, my partner seems alright but we're going to go and get checked out," he continued.

"(It was) absolutely terrifying, I can't think of anything worse."

Another resident, Lizzie, told BBC London: "Our flat was filled with smoke and we thought it was something in our flat, so we went down to investigate and then we realised it was coming from the flat below.

"Then we just got out and when we left the building we could see flames coming out from the flat below us."

She added: "It was pretty scary how quickly the smoke filled up our flat but I'm just glad that everyone's OK."

Bethan, who lives with Lizzie, said: "I'm slightly lower down in the flat because it's a maisonette so when I opened my door I knew it was bad because there was so much smoke.

"I probably reacted a little bit more extremely than Lizzie so I was up at the front door and one of our neighbours knocked at the door and said 'you need to get out'.

"Opening the door, and seeing how much smoke that was there, I knew that we had to go."

She said they were able to escape from the building by getting to a fire escape stairwell that didn't have smoke in it.

"We were more worried because we couldn't see anyone else leaving," added Bethan.

LFB said crews were sent from Kentish Town, Holloway, Islington and surrounding fire stations to the scene.

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