Fire at Tower Block at St Mark's Square Bromley
A fire broke out on the balcony of a flat on the 10th floor of Varney Court in St Mark's Square, Bromley in the morning of Thursday 15th August. The fire quickly spread to the flat above on the11th floor, all residents were safely evacuated and the emergency services attended promptly. The fire was out by midday, having been first reported at 9:55 a.m. Two police officers were slightly injured in the incident and were taken to hospital, but all residents were safely evacuated to nearby St Mark's Church. This is the second fire in St Mark's Square in two years, the first one in very similar circumstances - starting in a balcony, spreading to other flats and without an audible fire alarm to alert residents to the fire.
The three Bromley Town Councillors were on site to offer assistance where needed. We were shocked and upset to see another fire here and once again see distressed and disoriented residents having to leave their homes in an emergency. Some were with young children, some were carrying family pets, some were dressed in their nightwear, all having had to navigate walking down the stairs of the tower block to safety on the ground floor.
One resident explained how they felt:
"My family and I have been living in Varney Court for over 5 years. This is now the 2nd fire in 2 years both having started on balconies and spread. We were home at the time of the fire and are extremely concerned that no alarm went off to alert us of the fire to know to get out. If we hadn’t heard the noise of what we assume was the glass on a balcony smashing we wouldn’t have known there was a fire and needed to evacuate. We left immediately walking down many flights of stairs with our young child to be met by countless fireman, police and residents in the courtyard."
Bromley Council Officers carried out the same emergency plan as in July 2022, efficiently and kindly reassuring the evacuated residents, offering them food and refreshments (some kindly donated by nearby Waitrose), charging points for mobile phones, nappies for babies, water bowls for pets, and logging everyone's details so they could manage emergency accommodation for those who needed it. The performance of the Council Staff, the emergency services and the rector and curate of St Mark's Church was superb and we applaud everyone who helped.
Questions must be asked about the safety in this building, and we'll be demanding to be fully involved in the investigation that will take place. But for the moment we are relieved that everyone is safe and send our gratitude to the emergency services and Council Officers who worked so hard to make residents feel they were in safe hands on such a terrible and traumatic day.