A young couple who were asleep in the ground floor escaped from the blaze in the house on Norfolk Terrace, which broke out just before 9am.

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One witness arrived at the scene to see thick black smoke seeping from the roof windows of the house.

Philip Smith, 17, from Billingshurst, said: "We were walking down from the station and saw the smoke.

"We followed it to see what it was.

"There was thick black smoke seeping from the windows, and loads of firemen running about everywhere.

"People were obviously very worried."

Robert Moynihan, 26, from Horsham, was evacuated whilst he was working in the next door house.

"I was working next door," he said. "I heard the glass smash and then flames were billowing out the window."

Several fire engines, ambulance and police, and fire investigation services attended the first-floor blaze.


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