Four fire engines rushed to an estate agency after a car crashed through its front window and set light to the building – only recently refurbished.

An ambulance was also scrambled but fortunately was not needed.

The incident happened very early on Saturday morning and no one was in the Portico office in Forest Gate, London. Had the incident happened a little later later, the outcome could have been very different.

The blaze has, however, caused major disruption to the business.

The fire brigade says the cause of the blaze, which took just over an hour to put out, was an electrical spark which caused petrol vapour to set on fire.

Police say there was no sign of the driver or any passengers by the time they arrived and no arrests have been made.

A total of 21 firefighters from four different stations attended the scene.

The ground floor has been completely ruined and the first floor is also fire-damaged.

Yesterday evening, a spokesperson for Portico said that extensive damage has been caused to the entire building.

The Forest Gate team will now temporarily operate from two other Portico offices at Leyton and Ilford.

Regional director Mark Lawrison said: “We’d like to reassure the people of Forest Gate that none of our staff were injured during this unfortunate accident in the early hours of Saturday morning.  We will continue with business as usual, with phones diverted, and there will be no change in service to our landlords and sellers.”