Police confirm death of dog in tragic car fire in Dartmouth Park

The damage done to the two cars (Image: Archant)

Shocked onlookers watching firefighters tackle the blaze had described their horror after seeing the vehicle’s owner return from a church service to say their “pet dogs” were inside.

A police spokesman said officers had recovered the body of just one dog.

They added: “Police were called to two cars on fire at Chetwynd Road on Tuesday at approximately 21:08 hours. London Fire Brigade (LFB) were on scene when officers arrived. Two cars were alight which LFB managed to extinguish. A dog was found in one of the vehicles and had died. The circumstances around the cause of the fire is being investigated by LFB.”

Flames were seen running down the residential street as a fire engine dealt with the blaze, which had initially engulfed one car and then spread to another. Loud explosions filled the street as the fire, which began shortly before 9pm this evening in Chetwynd Road, spread to fuel tanks.

Onlookers then described seeing a distraught family arrive to the chaotic scenes to claim they were the owners of one of the cars on fire – and that their pet dogs were inside.

One witness told the Ham&High: “The family had just left the nearby church and came across. They looked horrified as they saw the fire and said ‘That’s our car...our dogs are inside’. They just burst into tears. Neighbours were hugging and consoling them and they returned to the church. It’s just awful.

“I can’t imagine the dogs are still alive. The fire was ferocious. There was flaming fuel just running from the cars down the street and the explosions were huge. It’s shocking.”

The fire was extinguished by about 9.30pm.

A note on the front of one of the cars was said to say it had broken down.

David Setchell, who lives across the road from where the cars were parked, called the fire brigade when he saw the flames.

He said: “The blue car had broken down, and [a man] manually reversed it into the space. He was outside the car with the window open steering it into the space.”