One of North London’s best known Turkish restaurants, Aksular, has been destroyed following a fire that broke out at the property on Tuesday, 19 July.
Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze on Green Lanes, Palmers Green, on the day the country experienced record-breaking temperatures.
There were calls to 999 soon after 9am on Tuesday as the fire quickly took hold of the single storey mid-terraced restaurant.
Firefighters quickly rushed to the scene where they remained all day as they battled to bring the blaze under control in difficult conditions.
The London Fire Brigade confirmed that one woman was taken to hospital as a result of the fire. Her condition is not known.
Station Commander Sami Goldbrom, who was at the scene, said: “The fire started in the restaurant’s ducting and has spread.”
Firefighters are still at the scene of the fire on Green Lanes in #Southgate and are likely to be there into the evening. Half of the roof remains alight https://t.co/PketvL4O1R https://t.co/XD9V3sOicV
— London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) July 19, 2022
The popular Turkish restaurant with a 200-diner capacity by the Palmers Green Triangle has been serving North London for over twenty years.
The restaurant was one of 41 properties destroyed by fire in London on Tuesday. It is believed the London Fire Brigade had to deal with over 1,100 fire-related incidents in a single day.
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “Yesterday [Tuesday] was the busiest day for the fire service in London since the Second World War.”
“Normally we get 350 calls a day, on a busy day we can get up to 500 calls. Yesterday, the fire service had more than 2,600 calls a day,” added the Mayor.
Temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius in Britain, the hottest on record, generating extreme heatwaves and multiple fires around the country.
