Hackney maisonette gutted in blaze during 24-hour firefighter strike

Huge blaze: House fire on Malpas Road. Photograph: Jonathan Bell

A large house fire broke out in Hackney Central yesterday evening, as firefighters staged a 24 hour strike over pensions.

Four fire engines from the emergency fire contingency tackled the blaze which gutted the Malpas Road maisonette. There were no injuries and the cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

The London Fire Brigade received the first of several calls about the blaze at 6.43 pm and the fire was under control by 7.19 pm.

On Twitter, local residents expressed concern at the time it took the fire brigade to respond, with some claiming it was twenty minutes before the Emergency Fire Contingent crews arrived on the scene.

The strike was the thirteenth by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in an ongoing dispute over pensions.