A teenager has described the moment the room he was in filled with smoke and before he knew it the whole warehouse was on fire. Ben Levi, 19, was playing table tennis at eBaTT - one of England's only professional table tennis academies - when the devastating Brent fire spread.
While playing, he saw smoke slowly start to fill the room he was in. After alerting the head coach and other players inside, they evacuated the building. Within an hour, the fire at Oxgate Lane had spread, and the entire warehouse, which houses over 200 businesses, was ablaze.
Ben told MyLondon: "We were just playing a match, my buddy and I, and then I suddenly saw a massive amount of smoke in the room we were in. We told the head coach and everyone kind of got scared. Once we saw how much smoke was coming, everyone evacuated but we didn't know it would get to such a big fire."
"When we left the building, there was no fire in sight. We never thought it would scale into a fire bigger than a shopping centre. It's scary to see how something so small can turn into something this big."
"I'd say it took around two hours for it to get to the size it did. When we were outside, watching the fire grow, that was the worst bit. I was watching some people who were trapped inside until the fire brigade came - you never knew if the people would make it out [but they did]. You could hear people screaming and shouting from the other units, and that was very scary."
In total 150 firefighters in 25 fire engines rushed to North West London as the fire broke out at the warehouse late on Thursday, June 11.
Eli Baraty is the owner and founder of eBaTT. He was celebrating his birthday that same day the fire happened. He was with his family when he received a call from his head coach, who explained there was a fire. He rushed back and saw the smoke; then he saw the fire rip through the roof.
He said: "This has been our home for four years. I built this place with my own hands. I put my heart and soul into this and built it from the ground up. We built a community of 500 members here because this is so unique. In one hall, you'd have a 90-year-old player with a 7-year-old practising and socialising with each other."
"You had all different people in one small hall, all with one simple joy and love for the same sport. Watching all my hard work go up in flames was devastating."
"We don't know what's going to happen because we've not heard anything yet. Every single person in the building is now homeless. I had no idea that Ben, Max, and Janek decided to start the GoFundMe. I'm the kind of person who, if something happens, I'll get up and help myself get back up. I didn't know it was happening until my wife showed me."
"You don't realise the impact you have on people until something like this happens. I had 100s of messages from people offering to help me out. The impact from the community and the way they responded, it affected me in a positive way."
Eli now has to wait until the investigation into the cause of the fire is complete while dealing with the administrative fallout. There were plans to open up a second location in Barnet before the fire happened and Eli is waiting to see whether that will be given the all-clear to go ahead.
Ben wanted to help out Eli with the GoFundMe and bring back the place that has been a 'home' for him.
"This is so unfair for Eli and the community. Eli is such a good person. To see someone who works so hard be destroyed by such unforeseen circumstances is not fair. [That's why we set up the GoFundMe] because I can trust someone like him with money and create something that is good. This was a home for so many people and this has been a shock for us. We would come every day, play for four to five hours, so it's sad."
Eli never complains, and he is trying to find a way to survive. That's what I like about him", Ben added.
If you'd like to donate to the GoFundMe, you can do so here.
