Croydon’s fire chief described how bricks rained down on firefighters as they tried to put out the blaze at House of Reeves during the August riots.

Borough Commander Chris Bigland was speaking at the council’s riot inquiry panel yesterday when he spoke of the fire that was watched on screens across the globe.

He said the fire was rapidly escalating because of the amount of furniture in the building at the time.

Commander Bigland was stationed inside the CCTV monitoring room and watched on as the blaze ripped through the 140-year-old building.

He said: “Just looking at the screen I could tell it was going to be excessive.

“I made a call to make it a six pump fire with a view to make it a 10 pump fire if required.

“Our fire crews came under attack and we were forced to retreat.

“Bricks were thrown at the fire trucks.

“But they came back and reasserted themselves and made an effort to put the fire out.”

Commander Bigland said it was a similar story in London Road, where fire crew needed police support before tackling the fires.

The inquiry heard how fire crews came under attack, with buildings inaccessible due to shutters ripped from stores and placed in front of doors.

Commander Bigland accepted some fire fighters might have been caught in cross fire between looters and police who were trying to seize control of the streets.

He said it was “always frustrating” when efforts were hampered but praised his officers for their work.

He added: “My officers deployed to Reeves Corner of their own volition - they took some risk as they came under attack.

“I would do nothing different and we would be ready to do it all again.”

He said he had never experienced anything like the night of the riots before in his career.

The inquiry highlighted discrepancies between the time logged for calls to the police and fire, with up to 30 minutes difference such as the timing of the Lidl fire in London Road.

Other witnesses had told the panel they believed there was a delay between the fires starting and fire crews tackling the blazes.

Former judge His Honour William Barnett QC, who chaired the panel, requested a second report which had the arrival times at fire scenes and where they had come from.