Teetering chimney in South Harrow a 'ticking time bomb' says roofer

Homes and shops in Northolt Road, South Harrow, were evacuated on Sunday, October 19, and the road closed for nearly five hours after the workman reported the chimney of a house he was working on was insecure and in danger of collapsing.

The danger was only spotted by chance after the tenant in the flat above the shop called in Nick Shellis, of Shellis Roofing to have a look at some of the tiles on the roof.

Mr Shellis, who lives in South Harrow, saw there was nothing supporting the chimney.

He said: “It was a ticking time bomb and people could have been killed.

“The chimney would have gone all the way through the ceiling and would have gone onto the street. I’ve seen it before and it had caused a lot of damage.

“I was just round there to check some of the roof tiles, but when I got into the loft I could see the whole of the chimney was teetering and could fall at any moment.

“For me the most important thing was to get out everyone out of the building.

“I was just horrified when I saw it and I feared for everyone’s safety.

“There were kids playing around in the flats and the shops were packed full of people.”

Kanthagamy Ram, manager of the South Harrow Computer Repair shop directly below the chimney, said: “When we were told to evacuate, we didn’t know what to think.

“We were very worried and we feared for our businesses. We are very thankful it was spotted and it means it should get sorted to make it safe.”

Fire brigade borough commander Richard Claydon said: “The building was in a precarious position and there was a real possibility it would have collapsed through the rest of the building.

“The gentleman did well and did the right thing by calling us and letting us know about it so we could take the right action.”

He added that while crews were on the scene the roof dropped by another six inches.

A huge scaffolding structure has now been erected around the building and engineers have been on site to make it safe.