MORE THAN five thousand pounds has been raised in less than 24 hours to help Chesham residents whose house was left as “a shell” following a fire yesterday morning.

Firefighters rushed to the blaze on Lowndes Avenue at around 10:18am yesterday with part of the road remaining closed into the evening.

No one was hurt during the incident which is believed the fire started in the roof of the two storey home.

To date £5,330 has been raised to help the victims of the fire via a web page set up by Eleanor Garth, a Ley Hill resident who also runs the OurChesham Facebook group.

The money, which has been raised in just 22 hours, has been donated by 271 different people according to the website.

The property’s landlord, who was one the scene yesterday evening, said he was “too devastated” to talk about the fire at this stage but one of his associates described the ruins as “a shell”.

An unnamed Lowndes Avenue resident said: “It is really terrible. It happened so quickly.

“There was a lot of thick, heavy smoke. It is lucky that no one was in the house.”

Another of the road’s residents, who also wished to remain anonymous, said: “The smell was very strong but the firefighters were fantastic. They managed to stop the fire spreading to the house next door.”

A Bucks Fire and Rescue officer confirmed yesterday evening that routine inspections would carry out throughout the night to ensure the fire did not restart and electricians were on the scene to stop the power supply to the property.

To donate to the appeal visit https://www.gofundme.com/7rzvnec4.