South London fire closes stations

[WessexWarrior]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6594419.stm

A fire is causing major travel problems for commuters heading into London.
There have been two explosions at an industrial site in Deptford, south-east London, and about 200 residents have been asked to leave their homes.

The blaze involves gas cylinders so a 200m exclusion zone around the site is expected to stay in place for 24 hours.

As the fire is near the line into New Cross, there are no services into London Bridge, Cannon Street, Waterloo East or Charing Cross.

The train services affected include Southeastern Trains, Southern and First Capital Connect.

Diverted trains

Any diverted trains will go into Victoria or Blackfriars and tickets can be used on London buses, the Underground and Docklands Light Railway.

The London Fire Brigade said the fire had engulfed about 75% of a two-storey warehouse on the site.

Shuttle trains are being run between London Bridge and Charing Cross, and London Bridge and Cannon Street.

The fire started at the warehouse in the early hours of Thursday at Canal Approach.

The London Fire Brigade has said a number of unknown gas cylinders are involved in the blaze.

About 50 firefighters and 10 fire engines are currently at the incident.

A spokesman said as the cylinders will need to be cooled before the area is made safe, the current 200m exclusion zone will probably remain in place for 24 hours.

Residents are being looked after by the local authority at a nearby school.

 

[Kris]

Forgot to say yesterday - Virgin X-Country were delayed due to theft of lineside equipment in the North East.

 

[WessexWarrior]

Yet another incident with gas cylinders! Why are people allowed to store them near roads or railway lines?

In that part of London, there probably aren't that many other places to put them

 

[class 313]

Not much of a issue to Thameslink (FCC), could just divert via Tulse hill and Elephant & Castle then onto Blackfriars for the normal routing to commence...

 

[ChrisCooper]

Yet another incident with gas cylinders! Why are people allowed to store them near roads or railway lines?

It's not like the incidents are that common, considering the number of gay cylinders there must be all around the country. Also, don't you think the people who have been turfed out of their homes and are wondering what damage might be done when they get back should get a little more sympathy than some commuters who have a bit of disruption to their journey to and from work (although half of them would say it's no worse than normal anyway). With this in mind, how about not having them within 200m (a normal exclusion zone) of residential properties. Also, there will be likely many other businesses loosing out if they have had to close aswell, some which might not be as well equiped to take it as the railways (afterall, most of the railways losses will be via the internal money-go-round, they don't even have to pay out to passengers of count it towards season ticket discount thresholds, since it's classed as out of their control).

 

[Dennis]

It's not like the incidents are that common, considering the number of gay cylinders there must be all around the country.

ex:
Hope my gas cylinders at work are behaving themselves tonight.

 

[ah-media]

Really strange going into London Bridge around noon and seeing no Southeastern trains in or out !

Fire was still throwing out stupid amounts of smoke when I went home via New Cross Gate around 1800.

It was probably the only time FCC are going to get priority over the stretch between London Bridge and Blackfriars !

 

[class 313]

Really strange going into London Bridge around noon and seeing no Southeastern trains in or out !

Fire was still throwing out stupid amounts of smoke when I went home via New Cross Gate around 1800.

It was probably the only time FCC are going to get priority over the stretch between London Bridge and Blackfriars !

But FCC weren't going to Blackfriars via London Bridge were they?