Thirty firefighters were called to deal with a loft blaze in the early hours of this morning, and now the damage can clearly be seen.
Kenneth Cowell, who lives in one of the terraced houses on Elizabeth Avenue, told how he was asleep in bed when he was woken up to the sound of his neighbour banging his door at 3am.
He leapt out of bed to discover that his next-door neighbour's loft was on fire, but as they live in terraced houses, his home was also affected.
But Mr Cowell is now coming to terms with the fact that his home of 40 years has been left unhabitable for the time being.
'I am doing OK,' he said. 'We are all so thankful that no one was hurt. A neighbour said it was a loft fire so I had time to put some warm clothes on but I did not have time to grab anything else. When you are in a fire, you just get yourself out.'
Mr Cowell added: 'It's been a tough year having lost my wife last year.'
Daughter-in-law Joanna Cowell added: 'We are hoping all our bad luck is over and done with - he's been through enough.'
More than half a dozen fire appliances attended the scene, but the family next door to Mr Cowell were able to escape their home before crews arrived.
The ambulance service and a paramedic from Norfolk Accident and Rescue Service (NARS) said they treated six children and two adults, but they did not need hospital treatment.
A spokesperson for NARS said: 'At 3:15am this morning, critical care paramedic Ryan Warwick assisted the ambulance service to assess using a specialist monitor that measures carbon monoxide levels.
'Thankfully none of the patients showed any signs or symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning and were left in the care of the ambulance service.'
Tony Hall, chief executive of Freebridge Community Housing, which own the homes, said it was liasing with the fire service and waiting it's investigation.
He said: 'Following the fire earlier today, Freebridge are working with the occupants of the affected homes to make sure that they have the full support they need at this time.'
When the fire broke out, crews from Downham Market, King's Lynn, Methwold, Terrington, Littleport, the water carrier from Fakenham and the welfare unit from Attleborough attended.
Later, crews from Heacham, Swaffham and Watton attended to assist.
Fire fighters in breathing apparatus used main and hose reel jets to fight the fire.
Richard Smith, a station manager who had travelled from Norwich, said: 'Thankfully everyone came out of the building and the crews did a great job to stop the fire from spreading.'
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