Four fire engines and around 25 firefighters were called to a fire at a block of flats on Arniston Way in Poplar.
Crews were called to a fire in the boiler room on the ground floor of a 23 storey residential block of flats. Part of a heating system was damaged by fire.
The Brigade's 999 Control officers were first called at 0134 and the incident was under control by 0255. Crews from Poplar, Millwall, Plaistow and East Greenwich fire stations were in attendance.
The cause of the fire is accidental and due to the unsafe storage of textiles near and on industrial flues.