FRESH safety fears have been raised after a fire gutted an A406 house being used as a squat.
Nearby homes on the North Circular in New Southgate were evacuated on Sunday night as flames tore through the abandoned terrace house, which had been repeatedly broken into by squatters.
Rachael McKenzie, who lives next door to the house, said she feared her home would also go up in flames, and called for more action from authorities to stop it happening again.
She said: “The house has been allowed to fall into disrepair and there are always squatters climbing over the fences into people's back gardens to get in.
“There have been squatters going in there time after time, and neighbours are obviously scared and being kept awake by what's going on.
“My home could have been set on fire as well because it is really overgrown at the back, which the housing trust have allowed to happen, and it is only by the grace of God I was able to see there was a fire and get out.”
Notting Hill Housing Trust took over some 400 run-down properties along the A406 in October, and yesterday begun the process of starting to evictions from an estimated 40-50 homes being illegally occupied.
Ken Barnett, project director for the A406 regeneration scheme, said he appreciated the concerns of residents and said his team were making significant efforts to solve the problems.
He said: “We are going through the process of getting court orders, but it all takes time and it is taking much longer than I would like it to take.
“It is a painfully slow process but it will produce a solution. But of course it is a concern when something like this happens.
“The problem is we didn't have control of the properties being squatted in.”
He said mobile patrols have been put in place to watch out for potential squatters breaking into abandoned houses, and he is hoping to have the evictions completed by April next year, if not sooner.
The area has been blighted for years with the problems of flytipping, neglect, and overgrown plants, and the trust, along with Enfield Council and Enfield Homes, have pledged to sort out the problems eventually.
This is not the first time an abandoned home has caught fire along the section of road, and since homes were vacated to make way for the regeneration work, the problem of squatting has been on the rise.
Mr Barnett added: “There is a real mixture of squats, where some look OK and there are families living in there, and others which are in an atrocious mess.
Councillor Achilleas Georgiou, who is a Bowes council and a cabinet member, said he and his colleagues continue to press for the A406 problems to be solved.
He said: “I absolutely understand the residents' concerns, the place is overgrown, it is blighted and the sooner we sort it out the better.
“I also understand the frustration of residents living next to this year after year, and we've been pushing Notting Hill to get this done as soon as possible.”
The fire, which broke out at around 11.40pm, was brought under control by firefighters within two hours. The cause of the blaze is now under investigation, and police are treating the incident as suspicious.
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