RESIDENTS in a Bradford street have spoken of their terror as a major fire forced them to flee from their homes.

Fierce flames from the blaze, which swept through the former tram sheds on Leeds Road, Thornbury, on Friday night, threatened to spread to houses on Rushton Terrace, with people evacuating their properties to avoid the smoke and searing heat.

More than 1,000 tyres and a number of vehicles went up in smoke on the site, which is used by a number of local businesses, including the curry chain Akbar's, Zee Tyres, Jacks Tyres, a car sales firm, and a hand car wash.

Retrospective plans have been submitted to Bradford Council to use part of the site as a waste tyre disposal business, despite concerns from local residents that it could prove a major fire hazard.

Joolz Denby, 60, who has lived on Rushton Terrace, situated behind the site, for 36 years, said: "I have been talking about this loudly for weeks and weeks and nobody has been paying any attention.

"People are terrified this could happen again, and it will, without a doubt.

"The after-effects could be awful, we have been told we risk our gardens dying because of the waste that came down.

"There are a lot of small children in this street and they were all exposed to toxic smoke.

"I could barely breathe afterwards with the smoke we had inhaled.

"Our eyes were stinging, our lungs were burning.

"It's hard to describe how terrifying it was, a neighbour described it as standing at the mouth of hell.

"You see massive fireballs in films and think they're really exciting, but when you're actually stood that close to one, it's out of control, it's so destructive."

Another resident said people had left their homes around 11pm, not being able to return until after 3am.

"It was crazy," she said.

"I've got four kids and we were just passing them down the street, it was that hectic.

"There was so much noise, all cracking and banging, and we worried the wall in front of the houses was going to come down.

"We were choking downstairs as the heat and smoke was so bad."

Emergency services and fire crews visited the site over the weekend to ensure its safety, and investigations are continuing into the cause of the blaze.

Jacks Tyres, the firm which has applied for permission for the tyre disposal operation, works hand-in-hand with tyre fitters Zee Tyres.

Zee Hussain, of Zee Tyres, said he had worked with firefighters until around 4am, helping to move tyres to prevent the fire spreading to his business' part of the yard.

He said none of the tyres caught up in the blaze belonged to his firm, but were tyres that had been fly-tipped in an area of the site used as a car park by Akbar's.

As reported in the Telegraph & Argus last week, the curry-house chain had supposedly been given an ultimatum to clear up the fly-tipped tyres or face action from the landlord of the site.

The company denied the accusation, with office manager Naz Hanif saying the fly-tipping had been reported to Bradford Council, arguing it should be the responsibility of the landlord to secure the car park.

She was not available to comment further yesterday.