A FAMILY of four escaped death on Sunday morning after their house collapsed following a sudden and dramatic fire.

The Addo family were spared because they were all out at 7.30am when the fire ripped through the house, destroying the entire first floor and the roof. It was not under control until 10am.

The house, in Felstead Close, Palmers Green, was in a block numbering seven to 14 and more than 20 people, including a family of five, were also evacuated as the blaze left the adjoining two properties structurally unsafe.

Yaw Addo and his wife had left early for a shopping trip while their two children, aged 14 and 18, were staying with friends.

Mr Addo, a postman, said his wife broke down when she saw their house, which had become an empty shell.

He said: “There is just nothing there – the roof collapsed. We're lucky the kids were not at home. I know we have lost a lot, but we have got all our family together. We’re hanging on.”

To add insult to injury, Mr Addo said when he returned to his former home yesterday, he found a man loading his family’s possessions into a van.

According to Servite, the housing association that manages the properties, the man was a representative of a firm of surveyor’s. He was however asked to leave by police and unload his van of the Addo family's things.

The evacuated residents were given a room in the four-star Royal Chace Hotel, in The Ridgeway,Enfield, on Sunday night and yesterday moved to a budget hotel in Finchley, at Servite’s expense.

Mark Cooper, 45, a father-of-two, who lived with his partner Karen, 22-year-old daughter, 18-year-old son and five-month-old grandson, said some residents had refused to leave the Chace Hotel car park yesterday because they were frustrated at not being able to “get a straight answer” from the housing association about the future.

He said: “If it is short term we will have to just grin and bear it, if it is long term then we can all make plans.

“I am not going to put all my family in one room. We know from previous experience once they put you in a place you are not homeless any more, and there is no way I am spending six months like that.”

Julie Humphries, communications manager at Servite, said residents were offered either like for like housing, a hotel close to their homes, or the chance to speak to Enfield Council about temporary accommodation.

She said residents would be given £15 per head for food and added: “Ideally we would want to put them in a house rather than in a hotel. We don’t actually know how long it will be for - as soon as we can get the surveyor in we will know, and we have told the residents that. It is just one of those nightmare situations.”

She said a surveyor would visit the scene on Thursday and no possessions would be removed until then, under residents’ supervision.

Police, who have cordoned off the area, have not yet been able to confirm the cause of the fire because the Fire Brigade cannot make a full assessment as the premises are still unsafe.