This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A “significant fire” at a paint factory has sent smoke billowing across London with witnesses reporting “fireballs” shooting into the air.

The London fire brigade said 97 firefighters and 15 fire engines tackled the blaze which completely destroyed a paint factory on Waterloo Road, Staples Corner, on Monday.

Achal Dhillon who lives in Hendon, less than half a mile from the scene, said the fire was burning “quite violently” for more than 30 minutes and fireballs were propelled into the air up to a height of 100 metres.

Dhillon said there was a “loud pop … then we saw a lot of flames suddenly rise up by themselves... then just this huge mountain of fire, almost pyramid shaped and spiralling as it was shooting fireballs into the air. There is a huge trail of thick black smoke”. He said firefighters arrived within a couple of minutes.

London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) Firefighters are working hard to bring the #StaplesCorner paint factory fire under control. If you're in the local area please shut your doors & windows. Updates will be tweeted on our feed © @EKesselman https://t.co/DknPQ31lxF pic.twitter.com/gYKfZFJM1u

The fire brigade said the first emergency calls came in at 9.20pm and that workers at the single-storey factory had left before firefighters arrived. There were no reports of any injuries and the blaze was brought under control by 12.22am.

A brigade spokesman earlier urged people to avoid the area if possible and for local residents to keep their doors and windows shut. The cause of the fire is being investigated.