Cannabis factory found as blaze reveals drug crop in front room

9:58am Tuesday 16th January 2007

RESIDENTS were shocked to discover they were living next to a cannabis factory, after it burst into flames.

Fire crews from Walthamstow and Leyton smashed in the window at 42 Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow to get access to the fire, revealing a front room stuffed with cannabis plants and growing lights.

Luigi Rodi, next door neighwas woken by the crews: "They came banging on my door telling me the house was on fire. We didn't know if there was anybody in there.

"We were worried about the roof catching alight at one stage."

Mr Rodi, who is in his 50s and lives with his partner, said he had no idea about the factory until he saw the plants through the broken living room window.

"We didn't know who lived there. I thought they were Vietnamese students, two men at the most.

"I'm totally surprised that there's a drug factory next to my house. I thought I would have smelt something but they had extractor fans."

Police were called and Transco turned off the gas supply.

Another neighbour, Raj Nadaraj, said: "I've never seen anyone in that house. Two weeks ago I saw two Chinese men and one European man drinking beer outside in the back garden. I said hello but they didn't speak to me."

Cab driver Mr Nadaraj, 40, bought the house 18 months ago and lives there with his wife, Janaki, son, Pathma, 21, and daughter, Baby, 20., He said he had returned home from work twice, around midnight, to see rented white vans parked outside the house.

A police spokeswoman said nobody was hurt in the fire and nobody lived at the house.

"The farm was set up to run off timers," she said. "There could have been coming and going."

She added that police had decided not to investigate the crime as the fire destroyed all the evidence.

The fire did not spread to other homes but 15 per cent of the ground floor, 30 per cent of the first floor and 20 per cent of the roof was destroyed by the blaze.

Investigations into the blaze on Thursday, December 28, are still ongoing.