A major fire in northwest London near a railway line has caused rush travel chaos on Friday morning.
Twelve people were evacuated from their homes after the fire broke out at a timber yard and adjacent two-storey offices, next to the West Coast mainline which leads into Euston.
Though the fire was under control by morning rush hour, it damaged a trackside retaining wall, which London Euston’s Twitter account warned was a “big job to fix” and led to the cancellation of all trains south of Milton Keynes to the station.
There were propane cylinders, which can explode in intense heat, inside the building and firefighters declared a hazard zone that closed adjacent Headstone Lane station and stopped trains.
The incident has caused severe delays to services running into and out of London Euston.
London Midland and Virgin Trains services were unable to run between Milton Keynes Central and London Euston.
A reduced service was in place along the West Coast Mainline. Southern services were suspended between Milton Keynes Central / Watford Junction and Shepherds Bush.
London Overground is running between Watford and Euston but will be “extremely busy”, commuters were warned.
A spokesperson for Network Rail said: “Passengers wanting to travel on the West Coast Main Line and West London Line are urged to check with their train operator or nationalrail.co.uk before travelling as disruption and cancellations are to be expected throughout the day.”
National Rail has issued full travel guidance here.
Firefighters are still on scene at the site of the blaze, which destroyed the factory.
Station Manager Jason Jones, who was at the scene, said: “We had a very well developed fire which was extremely visible from quite a way out.
“There were propane cylinders involved so a hazard zone was set up as cylinders can explode when exposed to heat.”