London: 100 firefighters called for “serious” fire near Elephant and Castle station | UK News

Around 100 firefighters have been called in for a “serious” fire near Elephant and Castle station in south-east London.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) said three business units in railway arches were “completely on”, in addition to four cars and a telephone booth.

Video footage shared on social media showed a huge plume of black smoke rising into the sky.

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The LFB is asking people to “avoid the area and close all doors and windows”. Fifteen fire engines were deployed, while the station and neighboring buildings were evacuated.

Officers at the scene described it as a “major incident” and said the road closures were likely to last for several hours.

The incident does not appear to be terrorism-related, Scotland Yard said. The blaze, which was first reported at 1:43 p.m., was described by Southwark Council as “serious”.

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Sara Scarpa, 25, lives in a nearby apartment building called Hurlock Heights.

“We opened the window for a second because you could hear the people screaming, and we felt something very, very loud,” Ms. Scarpa said.

“The smoke (was) subsiding a bit … we heard an explosion and now it has started again.”

Martin Bobrowski, a builder working in front of the station, said he was “really surprised to see him and a little scared”.

He added, “The smell was awful. It smelled like a burnt electric cable.”

Alex Leckie, 30, deputy manager of a restaurant called Tupi, said he was told “mechanics” were on fire.

He added: “The pillar of smoke also started to envelop the apartment buildings and we continued to hear intermittent detonations.”

LFB station commander James Ryan, who is there, said: “There are important roads …