A bedroom was destroyed while the rest of the flat was left badly smoke damaged after a home fire in Leigh.

Residents of the Belfairs Point flats, which sits on the corner of Eastwood Road North, were evacuated from their homes after a fire engulfed one of the second floor apartments.

Three fire engines rushed to scene at around 4:39 on Friday afternoon to reports of a burning flat.

On arrival, the firefighters found that a second floor flat facing down Eastwood Road North was completely smoke logged.

After discovering the fire, firefighters immediately evacuated the other five flats in the block.

A busy street with a precinct of shops, a pub and rows of houses either side of the block of flats, the incident generated an audience.

One witness, David Graham, 53, who using the Woodcutters Arms pub nearby when the fire broke, described the scene.

He said: "It was a pretty bad fire, I've never seen one that serious around this area.

"There were crowds of people standing outside, some of them living in the flats.

"A firefighter pushed the window out, probably to let the smoke out of the building.

"I feel for the people whose flat that is because it looks uninhabitable now."

Crews were able to extinguish the fire completely by 5.19pm, roughly 40 minutes after they arrived at the scene.

The bedroom where the fire originated has been completely destroyed. 

Smoke has blackened the area of the wall outside the window and the damage to the bedroom can be seen by passers-by.

On the ground was the frame of a window which had been pushed out of the property during the incident.

Luckily, no other flats within the block were affected.

The Echo visited the site of the fire, but the occupant of the flat was not present.

A spokesman for Essex Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that an investigation is underway by the service into the cause of the fire.

They will set out to determine whether the fire was the result of an accident or whether the cause was deliberate.