East London residents have opened up about their devastation after fires ripped through parkland into neighbouring residential streets - destroying nine homes and 25 cars.
Fire crews on Wednesday were still dampening down charred grassland and gardens near Bean Park in Dagenham, where houses and cars were reduced to burnt out shells.
Some 135 residents were evacuated during the blaze, which broke out at lunch time on Tuesday amid an unprecedented heatwave across the UK.
Temperatures hit 40C on Tuesday, the hottest ever on record in the UK, causing travel chaos thanks to widespread damage to overhead wires, tracks, and signalling systems.
The heat contributed to 41 properties across the capital being destroyed including homes and warehouses as temperatures smashed records.
It raged on through the afternoon and into the evening until crews had it under control at 10.40pm.
Many sheltered overnight at a nearby football club, as local hotels were filled up.
One family, whose property is standing but needs to be checked for structural damage, said nine out of 14 homes on their close had been burnt to the ground.
Mum Dawn Andrews, 52, and her daughter Faye Barwick, 21, fled their home as gas canisters started exploding in a nearby garage.
They were only allowed back briefly, to check if their beloved pets had survived the inferno.
Miraculously, all nine of their pet rabbits and a stray cat they had been feeding managed to escape unharmed.
Faye told the Mirror: “My mum screamed and said you need to help in the garden. There was so much black smoke.
“She turned the hose on the house to try to protect it.”
As they were fleeing, they heard “boom, boom, boom” from their neighbours garage and saw a canister fly across the street.
“I came here at about 9am thinking my rabbits were all dead.
“There are only about four or five houses standing out of 14. The rest are all burned to the ground.
“One lady who lost her house is heavily pregnant - they had just finished the baby’s room. She just broke down in tears.”
Dawn, who has lived in her home for 27 years, said she had warned the council that dry grass and shrubs behind their homes were a fire hazard.
She added: “I panicked. I tried saving the house.
“Everything I have got is in that house. All my memories.”
