Heathrow fire: Smoke visible for miles as over 100 firefighters tackle huge blaze at West Drayton garden centre

Tom Powell21 November 2016

A huge plume of smoke could be seen for miles across London as firefighters tackled a blaze at a garden centre near Heathrow Airport.

Over 100 firefighters and 15 fire engines were fighting to extinguish the fire in West Drayton which began just before 4.30pm.

The tower of smoke could be seen billowing above the M4 motorway after the fire broke out at Ansells Garden Centre on Holloway Lane.

Most of the two-storey building was destroyed as the fire was only brought under control just before 10pm, five hours after the London Fire Brigade was first called.

Smoke: Holloway Lane has been closed in both directions
Steven Reid

A London Fire Brigade spokesman said: "Around 100 firefighters are tackling a fire at a garden centre on Holloway Lane in West Drayton. Most of the two storey garden centre is alight and crews have put a 100 metre safety cordon around the incident.

"Around 20 people left the centre before the Brigade arrived and there are no reports of any injuries."

Transport for London said Holloway Lane was closed in both directions while a Met Police spokesman confimed the force were also in attendance.

Passengers travelling down the M4 motorway and in the West Drayton area took to social media to describe seeing a "massive fire".

Justin Springham wrote: "Huge plume of black smoke near Heathrow Airport." Derek King also said: "Wondering if there's been an explosion near Heathrow Airport."

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

A Heathrow spokesman said that the fire would not affect any flights coming to and from the airport.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in