Firefighters given KFC meals as thanks for putting out house fire in CowplainÂ

Fire crews from Horndean, Waterlooville, Cosham and Southsea were called to London Road just before 7pm last night '“ with the blaze under control within half an hour before it was extinguished about 9pm. 

One of the residents said he felt '˜rubbish' about the incident.

Danny Kingston, 61, was totally oblivious to his house smouldering as a fire ripped through the roof of the next-door house.

While no-one was hurt, residents of both houses were facing up to losing items and having to deal with a clean-up operation of their smoke damaged properties on the eve of Christmas.

Danny said: '˜It was a fire in the roof of next door which spread to our house. It's rubbish, totally awful. We're just trying to clean up our place now.

'˜We've lost all the clothes that were up in the loft but it could have been worse, we could have lost a lot more. We'll still be here for Christmas. It's far worse for next door, they lost a lot more than us.'

Speaking of his shock at what happened, Danny added: '˜I got a knock on the door saying that smoke was coming out of my roof. When I looked outside there was smoke billowing from it.

'˜The fire crews were brilliant. They were here within minutes and had it under control within half an hour.'

The adjoining houses are next door to KFC, with staff in the fast food outlet saying they were shocked by events.

Manager Nick North said: '˜We saw lots of smoke pouring out of the roof of the houses. We're just glad everyone was ok. It's not a nice thing to happen, especially at this time of year with Christmas so close.

'˜We gave the people water while they waited to find out how bad things were. We also gave the firemen water and some chicken. They did a great job.' 

Kim Furniss added: '˜There was smoke pouring from the houses. We were glad to help them and that no-one was hurt.'