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Will Self escapes with children as their roof falls in

Wednesday 23 May 2012 23:02 BST
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The writer Will Self has described how he had to evacuate his family after the roof of his home fell through on Tuesday night.

Four fire engines and a fire rescue vehicle were called to the road at 9pm, and one resident said a helicopter used thermal-imaging technology to check nobody else was left inside.

Speaking yesterday as he surveyed the wrecked four-storey Victorian townhouse in Stockwell, south London, Mr Self said:

"It was like the front of my house fell off." Talking to the Evening Standard, he added: "I got the children out to the back of the property because it was all about to go. Once things had stopped falling off I got them out through the front door. Somebody could have been killed."

His wife, the Guardian journalist Deborah Orr, tweeted: "Our house, and the four neighbouring houses, are OVER."

She added: "No one knows what caused it yet, but it's emergency services central. Helicopters, the lot."

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