In the early hours of Friday 13 December 1974, (as it turned out) two fires were deliberately lit in the hotel. Several occupants were roused by the smell of smoke, and on discovering fire raised the alarm as best they could, before leaving the building. One resident tried to extinguish one of these fires while it was still small, but he did not know how to operate the
fire extinguisher which he found. The first of several 999 calls were made to the
London Fire Brigade at 03:32 and received by the local fire station, A21, Paddington, who were ordered to the scene along with neighbouring A22, Manchester Square and G26 Belsize, bringing the first attendance of four pumping appliances (two were pumps – P, two were pump escapes – PE, carrying the heavy but stable 50 foot (15m) wheeled escape ladders), a 100 ft (30m) turntable ladder – TL (aerial ladder) and an emergency tender – ET (for the breathing apparatus (BA) sets carried; BA wearing was then still a specialist skill). On arrival, a chaotic scene greeted the senior officer, a serious fire in progress and numerous persons needing rescue. A priority message was made to control and a "Make pumps 8" message was sent (requesting a further four pumping appliances in addition to the original four) within minutes of first arriving, whilst rescues (the priority) were being made from both the front and rear of the building. Access was impeded by parked cars. Further reinforcements were requested, first to 15 pumps, and then 20, and finally 30 with a further two turntable ladders requested. During the next hour, the building structure began to deteriorate as floors and roof structures became affected by fire. This was particularly apparent in house numbers 13, 15, and 17, the worst affected. Many of the internal stairways were stone and when heated by the fire and then suddenly cooled by water collapsed making internal movement through the building awkward and potentially hazardous. Two trapped residents escaped by jumping from high windows: one into the slender topmost branches of a tree, one across a gap onto a fireman's ladder. As further crews arrived along with increasingly senior officers to direct operations and persons were accounted for, the operation moved from rescue to fighting the fire. Crews took hoses through the doors from the street and off ladders through the windows. One of these fire fighting crews, made up of 3 firemen and a Station Officer, entered a second floor room to search out the seat of the fire. Whilst in the room, several floors above, weakened by the extra load of the partially collapsed roof and of a large water tank, came down on the crew, the devastation seemingly concentrated on that one room. The release of the trapped firemen became the priority, with what proved to be a difficult and protracted rescue operation. One by one, three firemen were released (two with serious burns and one with a serious back injury) before the body of the fourth fireman was found. The incident was the first major incident dealt with by the control room at
Wembley since their computerized mobilising system was commissioned; it had only gone live earlier that week. The final attendance involved 30 pumping appliances, 3 turntable ladders, 3 emergency tenders and other specialist vehicles such as hose layers for relaying water long distances, including from the nearby
Regents Canal at
Little Venice. The "stop" message (= "incident under control") was despatched at 08:02 that morning, but damping down and standby attendance went on for some days. The incident proved to be the largest fire in Central London that year, and resulted in one of the largest number of fire brigade bravery commendations from a single incident. Four of the firemen later received awards from the Queen. ==Victims==