People living in an Ipswich residential street have recalled the moment dozens of firefighters arrived to tackle a huge blaze that broke out in a home.

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service was called to Kitchener Road, off Norwich Road, shortly before 10.30pm on Sunday.

A total of 16 fire engines from across Suffolk arrived at the scene, as well as police, the ambulance service and UK Power Networks engineers.

A police cordon was put in place in Kitchener Road while firefighters tackled the blaze, though it was lifted several hours later.

The roof of a number of terraced houses was left destroyed after the fire.

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman confirmed two people were assessed at the scene by paramedics, but they did not require treatment in hospital.

Neighbours living in Kitchener Road said their power was cut off overnight and was only restored in the morning.

Several people said they saw fire engines queuing up along the narrow street as they brought the blaze under control.

One man, called Josh, said: "It was ridiculous – I couldn't go to work at 4am as they had blocked off the road completely. I'm surprised they managed to fit all the fire engines in the road without knocking wing mirrors off.

"It woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep.

"The roof of the houses has collapsed, and it seems to have got worse overnight."

Sonia, who lives several houses down from where the blaze started, said: "When the flames were going out through the roof it was awful.

"When we came out here the smoke was just billowing up. It didn't look that bad to begin with, but then more and more fire engines came down."

Another neighbour, who did not give her name, added: "I saw a man rescuing people from the house – he went in several times.

"It was about 9.30pm when it started, and I was out here until about 2.30am. You can still smell the smoke now.

"There's plenty of HMOs down here. Five houses have all been evacuated, so I'm told."