Watch: Firefighters Race To Tackle Blazing Inferno In London Tower Block

Firefighters were called out on Saturday afternoon to tackle a huge blaze in a tower block in Kennington, South London.

The firefighters from Lambeth arrived on the scene after they were called at 12.31 pm to the 17-storey building where flames could be seen erupting from a ground floor flat and thick black smoke billowing out.

Huge fire on the Brandon Estate in Kennington. @LondonFire did fantastic to contain the fire very quickly. Sadly the flat is completely destroyed pic.twitter.com/4R31PQFZI9

— crazystylez (@crazystylez2) June 27, 2020

The fire service sent out eight fire trucks and 60 firefighters to manage the emergency and admitted that the inferno was incredibly difficult to bring under control. So far, 18 people have been injured and treated for smoke inhalation, including six children.

The cause of the fire is not yet known but it was hauntingly reminiscent of one of the greatest tragedies in recent UK history, the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. The highly flammable exterior cladding was to blame for the deadly fire in the 24-storey block, which claimed 72 lives.