Investigations are ongoing into the cause of a fire in Hounslow which killed five people, a senior firefighter told City Hall.

Jonathan Smith, the London Fire Brigade’s (LFB) deputy commissioner, said the incident was “a human tragedy” and “one of the most significant fires the LFB has faced in terms of the numbers of people who were trapped”.

He told London Assembly members on Tuesday (November 14): “We’ve got fire crews there today providing community support to everyone who’s in the local area to make sure that if people have got questions around the cause of the fire, any particular concerns, that we’re able to do that [address them].”

Five family members, including three children, were killed in a blaze in Channel Close just before 10.30pm on November 12.

The adults were named locally as Aroen Kishen, his wife Seema, and one of the children named Riyan.

Emergency services were called at 10.26pm on Sunday and roughly 70 firefighters and 10 fire engines attended the incident. The fire was under control by 1.25am.

READ MORE:

The bodies of the five family members, including three children, were found on the first floor of the terraced house on Channel Close by LFB crews.

Residents from the area described seeing smoke on Sunday evening, but were unsure if it was related to Diwali fireworks.

On Monday, the LFB and the Met Police said they were keeping an “open mind” over the cause. The Met is leading the investigation and no arrests have been made.

Mr Smith, speaking at a meeting of the Assembly’s fire, resilience and emergency planning committee, added: “I’ve been working very closely with the Fire Brigades Union to make sure that we’re providing the support to our staff, to make sure that we’re supporting the Metropolitan Police and the London Ambulance Service, who also attended.

“What we do have is specialist teams who are there all this week and will be going into next week, to make sure that we can understand what’s caused this fire, working very closely with specialist teams in the Metropolitan Police Service.

“This is a human tragedy and our heartfelt sympathies go to the friends and family of everyone who was involved.”