This afternoon at work we became aware of the strong smell of smoke from somewhere outside our office building. I volunteered to go out and check that there was not a fire in or near a building we managed.Eventually I came across the source which was a fire in the large Sikh Temple and community centre in Harley Grove, Bow, E3 (about 500m away from our office).
I have never in my life seen such a major fire in person. The emergency services had the situation well in hand and the area around the Temple was cordoned off while fire crews tried to put the fire out (or rather control the flames). It was pretty dramatic when the roof collapsed and there was a wall of flames and smoke. The noise was unexpected and pretty frightening.
The Temple is adjacent to the Malmesbury Estate (Bow South) which is now run by the ALMO Tower Hamlets Homes. There were a number of people watching what was going on and you could see everyone was sombre and horrified about what they were witnessing. We all have a primeval fear of fire I think.
Thankfully no-one was apparently hurt. See the East London Advertiser online report. I had worked in the Council housing office directly opposite the Temple for 3 years in the 1990’s. There were some very ugly rumours going around about the cause of the fire which I very much hope are wrong.
There was scaffolding up on the rear of the building which indicates building works were being undertaken and so there may have been an accidental cause.
I think everyone present was very appreciative of the work done by the London Fire Brigade and the Police.
