Firefighters inadvertently uncovered a cannabis growing operation in Croydon this morning (Wednesday, September 23) after attending a fridge-freezer fire on Strafford Road.

In the early hours of the morning, shortly after 1am, fire crews from London Fire Brigade (LFB) rushed to attend a fire that broke out seemingly by accident in a fridge-freezer appliance at a property on Strafford Road in Croydon.

Around 25 firefighters and four engines attended the scene of the blaze, which they managed to have under control around an hour later, by 2.26am.

"Half of a ground floor vehicle workshop was damaged by fire.

"Three people left an adjacent flat before the Brigade arrived and crews assisted two people out of the building from a flat above the workshop.

"A woman and a child were taken to hospital by London Ambulance Service crews as a precaution," a spokesperson for LFB said.

More surprising than the appliance fire, however, was the fact that while extinguishing the blaze the LFB crews stumbled upon a suspected cannabis factory. 

A spokesperson said the cannabis farm was found "inside a suspended ceiling at a workshop" on the site burned by the fire.