Man rescued from ‘suspicious’ Waterloo house fire

Four fire engines and around 20 firefighters were called to Greenham Close just after 3.30am. The fire caused a small amount of damage to the ground floor of the house.

"We got there to find a man and woman had escaped from the house but there was still another man inside," says Chris Payton, watch manager at Southwark Fire Station, who was in charge of the incident.

"Fortunately, due to the information we'd received from colleagues in our control centre, we were able to quickly locate the man and rescue him using a ladder.

"Whilst the fire was relatively small it could easily have spread causing further damage and it's thanks to our crews that it was extinguished so quickly."

Crews from Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster fire stations were called to the scene. The blaze was brought under control just before 4.30am.

All three people suffered from smoke inhalation and were taken to hospital by ambulance. Metropolitan Police officers were also on the scene.

At this stage the fire is thought to be suspicious and is being investigated by the police and the brigade's fire investigators.