People looked on in horror as a fire ripped through an Oakwood street this morning.

The blaze damaged roofs in two properties in Lindal Crescent, Oakwood as well as gutting the first floor of a third property completely.

Ivan Turner‘s property suffered the most damage. He was woken up by what he thought was a burglary at 5am to find his roof on fire.

Mr Turner, 52, said: “I ran upstairs to grab a torch thinking I was being burgled and saw smoke pouring out of the loft hatch.

“I was worried about the neighbours because all our roofs are interlinked so I ran downstairs and switched off the gas and electricity then went and banged on all their doors to make sure they knew what was happening.

“Then I had to stand out here and watch my house burn down, but at least nobody was hurt.”

Some of Mr Turner’s neighbours were woken up by the smoke, heat and noise of the London Fire Brigade attending the scene.

James Hedley, who was staying at his mother’s house across the road from Mr Turner, said: “The smell of the smoke and the noise of the engines woke me up at about 5am.

“The roof was absolutely blazing and I could feel the heat from the fire from my bedroom window. It’s definitely the biggest fire I have ever seen. The flames were really tall coming off the roof.

“It’s a blessing nobody was injured. I’ve been running tea out to the fireman all morning and now I’ve run out of milk.”

Another neighbour heard Mr Turner’s roof collapsing. She said: “The smell of smoke woke me up at about 5.30am and at first I was worried it was my house so my partner and I went straight to check on our son."

A total of four engines and 21 firefighters from Edmonton, Barnet and Southgate fire stations attended the scene at 5.36am and managed to control by 7.24am.

Mr Turner and his partner recovered what belongings they could today as investigators began the process of finding out what caused the fire.

“We saw the blue lights and flames across the road and realised what was happening, it was horrible, not a nice start to the year at all. I could hear the roof collapsing and the sound of the roof tiles falling to the ground.

“All credit to the firemen they got it under control very quickly they did a great job.”