Firefighters were injured last night tackling a serious blaze at flats in Wandsworth.

Four firefighters suffered burns to their arms during the incident, at flats above an empty shop in East Hill, which was reported at around 10.45pm.

A London Fire Brigade spokesman said eight crews, some 40 firefighters, attended the scene and that the injuries suffered were not life threatening.

Two of the injured have since been released from hospital, he added.

Fire damaged the ground, first and second floors of the building.

"A staircase between the ground and first floor was also destroyed," he said.

"Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus led one person to safety and a further six people left the building before the brigade arrived.

"Crews from Wandsworth and surrounding fire stations attended the incident.

"The cause of the fire is not known at this stage."

East Hill resident Ed Wyre was on the scene as the drama unfolded.

He said: "It's not unusual to hear sirens going done East Hill but we soon started to smell smoke and looked out the window to see the whole road sealed off and scores of emergency services tackling the blaze.

"It was very dramatic.

"It really was quite an event, there were fire crews queued up down East Hill."

Another resident, who did not wish to be named, said she was returning from a night out when she witnessed the blaze.

"We were on the way home from a night out around 12.30am when the bus stopped because East Hill was cordoned off," she said.

"We had to approach our house on the back streets and we could not really go close to the scene.

"All we could see was a lot of fire engines, police cars and ambulances with heaps of firefighters in the street and smoke coming out of the top of the building."

Another resident from nearby Geraldine Road, who did not wish to be named, said: "I heard lots of sirens and there were dozens (of firefighters) there.

"You couldn't really see what was going on inside but it looked serious."

Investigations into the cause of the blaze are ongoing at the scene.

Click here for a picture gallery of the scene in Wandsworth

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