Sixty firefighters fought a derelict house fire on Addiscombe Road from 4.32am Thursday. The roof was destroyed, nobody hurt, cause under investigation.
Eight fire engines and around 60 firefighters were sent to a derelict house on Addiscombe Road in the early hours of Thursday, and the building’s roof was destroyed. Nobody was hurt.
London Fire Brigade recorded the incident as a house or flat fire at 04:32 on 17 September. Control officers took the first of four calls at that time, and the fire was under control at 06:53, two hours and 21 minutes later.
What the Brigade says was damaged:
- half of the ground floor of a two-storey, detached, derelict house
- half of the first floor
- the roof, which was destroyed
There were no reports of any injuries.
A turntable ladder and the drone team
Station Commander Tom Sharp, who was at the scene, said: “Firefighters worked hard to bring the fire under control as quickly as possible.
“One of the Brigade’s 32-metre turntable ladders was used as a water tower, allowing crews to tackle the fire from above. The Brigade’s Drone Team was also deployed, giving the Incident Commander an aerial view of the incident and using thermal imaging cameras to identify hot spots.”
Crews came from Woodside, Croydon, Forest Hill, Beckenham and surrounding fire stations.
The closure covered about half a mile
Station Commander Sharp said Addiscombe Road “was closed between the junctions of Havelock Road and Birch Tree Way, and we urged people to avoid the area where possible”.
Those two junctions are roughly 800 metres apart on the map, so the closure took out about half a mile of Addiscombe Road through Addiscombe, on the main road east out of East Croydon. The Brigade has not published a reopening time. Our Croydon roadworks and travel page carries the current closures across the borough.
What it means for you
The cause has not been established. The Brigade’s statement says only that it “is under investigation”. Nobody has been named, and no conclusion should be drawn from the fact that the house was empty.
If a derelict building near you worries you, the council has a route for it. Croydon Council asks residents to report empty properties to its empty property team, by email at hsg-emptyproperty@croydon.gov.uk or on 020 8760 5470. The council’s own page says that where it receives regular complaints from neighbours about an empty property, it “may consider enforcement action that could result in the compulsory purchase of the property”.
If you live in a flat or a house in multiple occupation, the Brigade’s free Home Fire Safety Checker walks through the checks that matter most, and smoke alarms remain the single thing that buys a household time.
Sources
- London Fire Brigade, House fire - Croydon, incident of 17 September 2026, page last updated 17 September 2026 at 9.16am, for every figure, timing, quotation and the road closure
- Junction positions for Havelock Road and Birch Tree Way from OpenStreetMap, used to measure the length of the closed section
- Croydon Council, Empty properties, for the reporting route and the enforcement wording
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