A barman put out a bin-fire yesterday which had caused a busy high street "to fill up with smoke”.

At around 2pm passers-by noticed smoke pouring out of the bin outside the Walnut Tree Wetherspoons pub in High Road, Leytonstone.

With the fire service on strike, Arnie Aymer, 32, barman at the pub, took matters into his own hands and rushed outside with three bowls of water to douse the flames.

He said: “A couple of our customers pointed out the smoke pouring out of the bin pretty thickly which was causing the whole road to fill up with smoke, I couldn’t just stand around and watch, I had to help.

“I straight away told my manager, and then grabbed some bowls of water to stop the flames in the bin, I could see the flames at the bottom.

“The high street is a busy public road and it was really dangerous and could have got out of hand as there were children and traffic around.

“I am not sure what caused the fire, it could have been kids messing around or a cigarette could have been thrown into the bin.”

On the London Fire Brigade website, it says the service may not attend bin-fires during its strike in a row over pensions, but the strike did finish at 6pm yesterday.

Witness Joe Ward, from Walthamstow, said: “It was gaining hold and had the civic-minded young man from Wetherspoons not extinguished it, it could have been nasty.

“There was additional rubbish sitting beside the bin, traffic was stacked up in the area and with the fire service on strike, it could have developed into a far more serious incident."