UPDATE: Residents' midnight ordeal after mystery house and shed fire in Bloomsbury Close, Epsom
6:36pm Monday 4th March 2013 in News By Hardeep Matharu
A fire engulfed two floors and a shed at 31 Bloomsbury Close
Residents have spoken of their midnight ordeal after a mystery blaze tore through two floors of a house and a shed on Friday night.
Epsom fire station was called to the fire at 31 Bloomsbury Close, Epsom, at 12.45am and spent seven hours extinguishing it.
The ground and first floors were severely damaged and the shed in the back garden was completely destroyed.
The occupant of the house next door, who did not want to be named, said she did not know the cause of the fire, and thought she was having a "nightmare" when she was woken up at 12.30am by a man and a woman "belting for me to get out of my house".
She said: "They were nice to knock, maybe my house would’ve blown up. It was terrible.
"I never want to experience this again. I thought I was dreaming. I thought it was a nightmare - it was like being in a film.
"The family must have been inside at the time as one of them came out in her pyjamas."
Part of the neighbour’s garden fence, the paving slabs in her garden, the skirting on the outside of the back of her house and her flowers were also damaged by the fire.
She said she spent two hours outside before being allowed to return to her house.
Another Bloomsbury Close resident, who lives three doors away, added: "The first thing I heard was ‘bang, bang, bang’ on my door and people telling me to get out of my house. We came outside and waited and it wasn’t half cold.
"All you could see was smoke coming out this way, but round here it’s just one of those things.
"The police and the firemen really did a good job."
A resident of Andover Close, who lives opposite no 31, said: "It was definitely a big fire, I saw the flames going right up the top of the house.
"The family were in there at the time, they must have gotten out quite quickly.
"I heard it was caused by a fault with electrics."
It is not known what caused the fire.
An Epsom fire officer said the fire spread to the shed from the house, while a Leatherhead firefighter said it was a shed fire which turned into a house fire.
