Forest Hill & Sydenham up in flames

Well, maybe not that dramatic, but it was quite a scene.



I woke up to a normal day, but apparently the fire had already started (just before 8 I believe) and the smoke was already rising.

Then, just before 9 the electricity went off. I spotted the black cloud and thought maybe some evangelical swimmers may have been looking to bring forward the demolition of the Forest Hill Pools.

I set off with my camera to investigate and found that the local electricity sub-station was in flames (or at least some oil fired generators next door) [story on the BBC]. Here they are on Google Maps:


View Larger Map

So, I took a few photos for the record.



[Click here for the full set of photos on Flickr]

Now, it seems that the record will be more complete thanks to these photos as they will probably be used in the South London Press and Mercury Newspapers. In fact, one is already on their website.

Quite a day, and that was BEFORE I went off to visit the Devonshire Road Nature Reserve and Forest Hill Day at the Horniman Museum gardens!

Forest Hill Events

In case you have not read about it on other sites or blogs, this is a quick reminder (for those who have yet to get around to removing this site from their feed readers) that this weekend June 8th, 2008 is Forest Hill Day.

There is no site to point you to (disappointingly), but it is to be held from 12:00 to 17:00 at the Horniman Gardens this Sunday.

At the same time, the Devonshire Road Nature Reserve is also holding an Open Day from 12:00 to 18:00 (they have a great new blog at least, well done!)

I'll do my best to be there, I hope you will too.

Lots of fun for the whole family I'm sure.