An overnight blaze left a terraced house completely blackened.

The fire broke out in the early hours of yesterday in a terrace of four homes in Northallerton Road, Undercliffe.

At 2.50am, four crews were called to the scene, after emergency callers said there could be people inside the building.

No-one was in the house, which had been completely consumed by fire.

The fire left the inside of the house burnt out, with further damage to the roof and exterior.

Next-door neighbour Terry Speight said: “I got up in the middle of the night. There was a noise, I thought somebody was having a go at the van.

“I came down, opened the curtains and it was a fire.

“Basically we got out of the house. We had to ring the fire brigade. I think everybody on the street rang them.”

He said his wife went round neighbours’ houses making sure people were out, while he tried to tackle the blaze.

He said: “I was trying to look after the fire, or trying to do something. I tried to go at it with the hose pipe, then thought better of it. It was roaring, then I believe the front windows went, it was that bad.

“To be honest, the fire engines were here within seconds, they did really well.”

Mr Speight said the house was rented and that no-one had been in at the time.

He said while the next door property had been destroyed, he was now in the process of assessing the damage to his own home.

He said: “I’ve just been in now. There’s a bit of water damage and smoke damage. A bit of the conservatory has gone.”

Another neighbour said a firefighter had told him it was the worst house fire he had seen in 25 years.

A fire investigation team was at the scene yesterday trying to establish the cause.