petrol bomb lobbed into party

Petrol bomb theory after blaze kills nine at all-night party

Lindsay Mackie
Monday January 19, 1981
The Guardian

A fierce fire which killed nine people and injured over 20 after an all-night party in a house in south London is believed to have been started deliberately.

The fire was almost certainly started by a petrol bomb, although there was no official confirmation of this last night by Scotland yard.

There were reports that something was thrown through a ground-floor window minutes before the fire started, and police want to the interview driver of a white car seen outside the house.

The dead, all young men and women, were among 200 guests who went to a joint birthday party held by two West Indian girls in New Cross Road, Lewisham.

Survivors described how flames swept through the three storey house at around 5.30am yesterday.

Mr Carl Wright, aged 20, of Camberwell, who had just left the party, said: "I heard the sound of breaking glass and then there was the fire. I saw a white car being driven away. There were about 30 or 40 people still there so I dashed back and helped as best I could. I called out to them: "Don't come down the stairs, because of the flames. They came through the windows. I counted about 10 of them coming down. "

The party was held by Miss Yvonne Rudduck, aged 16 - whose mother, Mrs Amza Rudduck, is the tenant of the council property - and Miss Angela Jackson, aged 18. Both girls survived.

Miss Jackson, of Ludwick Mews, Deptford, said that as she left at about 5.30 with five other girls, they saw a white car parked outside the house with a "youngish, shorthaired" black man in the passenger seat.

Police say that the car, thought to be a Princess, made a U-turn in New Cross Road and turned sharply into Mornington Road, forcing another car to brake sharply.

Experts believe that the fire started on the ground floor. There was no one in the front room, but there was a group of older people in the kitchen at the back. The young people were dancing or listening to music on the first floor, and there are thought to have been a few youngsters on the second floor.

Neighbours had complained about noise from the party and police had twice visited the house asking for the sound to be turned down. But Mr Len Franzen, who lives next door, said that there did not seem to be any trouble.

Mr Neville Forbes, aged 45, who was in the kitchen, said: "I heard a bang, but what it was I don't know, because the vibrations of the music upstairs were very loud. The fire didn't take long to spread, it was really going, you never saw anything like it. People were shouting 'get out, get out' and kids were jumping out of windows."