Council deems that family's collapsed roof isn't unsafe

A family are in shock after the roof on their home in Thornton Heath, south London, completely collapsed on Friday morning. The mother, who did not wish to be named, claims Croydon Council have inspected the property and confirmed it is not unsafe, however she is concerned about the risk. "We do not know what happened and why. It's a big shock," said the mother of two young children.



"The council have not deemed it as unsafe in but it doesn't look safe to us. There are cars driving by and we are worried they might get hit if something happens again." Neighbours were evacuated at around 2pm on Friday after a resident phoned the fire brigade to report the incident. Both the mother and her partner were at work when the collapse happened and were called by friends about the news. Currently, the family are not living in the house.

The mother added: "There's no internal damage to the bedrooms on the first floor as just the attic collapsed. We are waiting to hear more from the our insurance, who we are ringing constantly, and the council." Helena Rybak, who lives opposite, called the fire brigade when she heard the crashing and is concerned about her own roof. The 33-year-old said: "I heard a noise, like a crash, and my friend came over to tell me she heard it too so we phoned the fire brigade.



"I have started to be concerned for my own house and I've never seen anything this before." Next-door-neighbour Parvaiz Akhtar said his wife was evacuated. The 79-year-old who has lived in the house with his family for 20 years, added: "I came back at around 5.30pm and saw the damage. Our neighbour was outside crying, she was heartbroken. It must be hard as she had two young children. I'm not too worried about my house but I'm concerned about their house."