Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus rescued a man from a flat fire on Meadow Road in Elephant and Castle last night.
Six fire engines and 35 firefighters and officers were called to a fire in a block of flats of four floors. The blaze damaged the communal stairwell between the second and third floor and part of the roof.
999 control officers gave vital fire survival advice to a man on the third floor. He was rescued by firefighters and brought out of the property. He was suffering from smoke inhalation and taken to hospital by London Ambulance Service crews.
A woman and two children left the property unharmed via the ground floor window and around 45 residents from the block of flats evacuated before the arrival of the Brigade.
The Brigade was called at 2153 and the fire was under control by 0034. Fire crews from Old Kent Road, Dowgate, Lambeth, Peckham and Whitechapel fire stations attended the scene. The cause of the fire under investigation by London Fire Brigade officers and the police.