A FATHER-of-three has spoken about the dramatic events which saw him and his family evacuated from their home as an industrial fire blazed nearby.

Tahir Mirza, 40, and his wife Mette Peterson, 34, had to leave their home in Roding Lane North in Woodford Green for six hours on Sunday, along with their three children, Emma, 4, Thomas, 2, and one-month-old baby Jacob.

The Fire Service feared that several LPG canisters near the blaze in a neighbouring scrapyard could explode due to the intense heat and told the family they should leave their home while the fire was brought under control.

Tahir said: “We didn't know anything about the fire until a policeman knocked on our door at about 3.30pm. He said we should get out for our own safety, and when we walked outside the house we could see lots and lots of smoke."

Tahir lead his family out calmly from the house, before deciding to spend the day in Ilford as they would not be able to return to their house for several hours.

He said: “Our neighbour was also told to leave while there was still a risk of these canisters exploding but he didn't bother, and just stayed indoors to eat his dinner.

“The police said that we should wait for a call about when we could come back, and we don't drive so we just had to walk around. So we ended up in Ilford shopping centre, and sat in a restaurant for a few hours.

“In the end the police never even bothered to call us back, so after waiting around for ages we decided to head home and got back at about 9:30pm or 9:45pm. You could still smell the smoke in the air even all those hours later because there had been so much of it.

“The kids went to bed as soon as we got in, because they were so tired. But unfortunately they couldn't go to school the next day, because they hadn't had enough sleep.”

The fire originated in a scrap yard around 30 metres back from the main road. Several of the cars and two portacabins which were burnt out belonged to Kolapo Mogaji, 37, who runs Kolar Motors from the yard.

Mr Mogaji said: “I got a phone call at about 3pm on Sunday to say there was a fire in the yard. I was in McDonald's at the time, so I came straight over. When I arrived the fire had spread to the portacabins.

“As I stood and watched it spread to all of the cars that are now burnt out. I lost my van as well. I lost quite a lot of office equipment and things that were in the cabins.

“It's going to be really hard to get my business back on track because it's cost me quite a lot of money, it will be very difficult.”

Crews from Leytonstone, Woodford, Hainault, Romford and Walthamstow stations attended the scene. The Fire Service is currently investigating the cause of the incident.