A fire gutted the top storey of a house this morning.

The blaze took hold of a one-bed semi on the corner of Perkins Close, and Steele Avenue, Greenhithe, between 10.30am and 11am today.

Geoffrey Hough, 65, a retired shop owner, who lives in Perkins Close said: "When I came back at 1pm there was a fire engine outside. It's the first time something like this has happened in the 10 years I've lived here."

A 47-year-old mother of two said: "I was up the hairdressers - I left at about half 10 and I got back about quarter past 11.

"Then the fire brigade were outside.

"The windows were open, you could see inside the bathroom and it was all black inside.

"There was red tape round the front door."

A 40-year-old father of one added: "I was off work today so normally there wouldn't have been someone in.

"Someone knocked on the door and said: 'Next door's alight' and by the time I had put a pair of tracksuit bottoms on the fire brigade had arrived.

"An ambulance was called but they went straight away so I can only assume there was nobody in at the time."

He said that the woman who lived at the house "keeps herself to herself."

The front door to the property was boarded up this morning.

A police spokesman said that the woman returned after the blaze had been put out.