TERRIFIED neighbours living above a burning Bexley takeaway have compared the blaze to a bomb explosion.

People were forced to evacuate their homes after Mr Man’s Fish ‘n’ Chips in Belvedere caught fire on Wednesday morning. (Jan 2)

Around 20 firefighters were called to Nuxley Road at 10.25am when the shop’s ventilation system caught alight.

Steve O’Grady, 42, who was awoken by a neighbour banging on his door, told News Shopper: “It seemed like something out of war, it was unbelievable.

“There was thick black acrid smoke pouring out of the shop, I had never seen anything like it before - it was like a bomb had hit it.”

In addition to the four fire engines from Plumstead, Erith, and Bexley stations, police and ambulance crews were also called to the busy shopping parade.

Nobody was injured but an asthma sufferer was treated for smoke inhalation.

About half of the downstairs takeaway was damaged but crews managed to prevent it spreading to neighbouring shops and flats by ripping out the ventilation which had caught alight.

Neighbour Kelly, 29, who had to flee her home, said: “I put my heating on and there was smoke coming through the radiator – I didn’t know what to do or what to take with me.

“We were told if it would have been five minutes longer the flames would have hit the roof.”

Police closed off Nuxley Road at the mini-roundabout for about 90 minutes while the fire was dealt with.

Andrew Rickard, London Fire Brigade’s borough commander for Greenwich, told News Shopper: “We are not treating the fire as suspicious but it seems the heat levels on the chip fat cooker were slightly high and the fire caught the ventilation system.”

The devastated chip shop’s owner, named locally as Bobby Man, was too upset to speak.

The cause of the fire is being investigated.