Firefighters raced to put out a burning hedge in New Malden on Sunday, just feet away from where people were sleeping in a tent.

The fire, believed to have been started by a cigarette, was spreading towards the campers on wasteland, off Cocks Crescent.

Passersby spotted smoke coming from bushes at about 3pm on Sunday, August 2, and raised the alarm.

Watch manager Steve Preston said: “If we turn up to a rubbish fire, we don’t expect to find people so close. They didn’t realise. They just stayed in their tents.

“If it had been late at night and people hadn’t been around, we might not have caught it so quick. What we don’t want it people getting hurt from this sort of fire.”

He urged smokers to extinguish their cigarettes before throwing them away, particularly in the summer when bushes and trees are dry.

The campers, believed to be homeless, were not harmed and firefighters let them to continue with their afternoon nap.

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