Neighbours of a family made homeless by a fire in Basildon say they have "lost everything".

On Thursday night at around 7pm, a fire broke out at a home in Great Spenders.

Within 40 minutes of the family dialling 999, two fire crews from Basildon and one from Rayleigh Weir had extinguished the blaze, believed to have been caused by a leaking gas pipe.

The neighbours either side of the home were forced to be evacuated when the fire broke out.

A woman who lived next door to the scene, said: "We were evacuated just after 7pm, we were out the house for around three hours.

"The house next door is inhabitable, it is awful, they do not deserve it.

"I know all the gas and electric has been turned off and they had to make it safe before we could come back in.

"We only have smoke and the smell of burning in our home, which is nothing compared to them, they have lost everything.

"I'm just glad they got out as any later then I do not know what would have happened.

"The flames were all coming through the front door because that's where the gas and electric in the home, like mine.

"You could see it all coming through."

Following the incident, a woman who lives opposite the road said that work took place through the night to control the leak, and cut off the electric supply.

She said: "There were three fire engines I think, there were here until gone 9pm I would say, it was pitch black, very cold.

"National Grid were here until about 4 in the morning.

"It's such a terrible thing to happen, it is awful for the people who live there.

"I don't know what the damage is but from what I understand it has caused quite a lot of fire and smoke damage but I have not seen it.

"It is so sad this happened through no fault of their own.

"Thank goodness it happened at that time rather than the middle of the night while they were all asleep."