Harrow bin cleaning service helped extinguish a fire which broke out

London Bin Cleaning (LBC), a bin and patio exterior cleaning service for Harrow and Brent, came to the rescue as they used their own high-pressure hoses to extinguish a balcony fire at Dollis Hill Lane, Cricklewood on Tuesday (September 3) at around 5pm.

Staff members Gabriel Dragomirescu and Dumitru Costin were driving in an LBC vehicle to return to the cleaning services based in Cornwall Road, Pinner, when they saw smoke arising from a property at Dollis Hill Lane.

After seeing the blaze coming from the balcony of the house, the drivers instinctively decided to stop and use the vehicles own water supply and pressure equipment to help extinguish the flames for around thirty minutes until the London Fire Brigade arrived.

Mr Dragomirescu said: “I didn’t feel scared, when you see something like that you have to help.

“There were many people there outside the house, so they helped us to hold the hose while we went on top of the garage to see the fire on the first floor more clearly.

“I think around 80 per cent of the fire was gone by the time the firefighters came.”

London Fire Brigade confirmed they were called to the fire at 5:09pm, the fire was fully extinguished by 5:49pm after the help of the LBC cleaners. The balcony of the property was left partly damaged by the fire.

Conan Sammon, the owner of LBC, said: “I’m very proud that they used their intuition and acted fast, they were very lucky to come equipped.

“I think that potentially, if the vehicles have water supplies carried on board, I’m happy for us to do something like this again.”

LBC which started in 2012 while Mr Sammon was studying at Reading University, won the Harrow Business Den Awards at Harrow Council in 2017.

The firm has been growing ever since with an increased fleet of vans, servicing various boroughs in north west London including Harrow, Brent, Ealing and Hillingdon. The company hopes by 2020 to cover areas within south and east London too.