A man has died after a fire broke out in a first floor flat on Brassey Road in West Hampstead.

Ham & High: The fire at the West End Sidings estate. Picture: Sanaz GhanbariThe fire at the West End Sidings estate. Picture: Sanaz Ghanbari (Image: Archant)

But neighbours have praised the actions of a woman who raised the alarm and helped get the other residents of the block to safety, including a wheelchair-bound woman and a four-month old baby.

The flat, in a block of three floors on the West End Sidings council estate, caught fire overnight, with the fire brigade called at 3.57am.

The emergency services confirmed the victim was rescued from the building and given first aid, but he was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 5 this morning.

The fire brigade brought the fire under control just after 6.

Next of kin have yet to be informed.

Thomas Dalton and Laura Moore, both 22, live in the flat beneath where the fire began with their four-month old daughter.

Thomas told this newspaper: “We would have been trapped in the fire without the efforts of the girl.

We were asleep and she was ringing on our buzzer, knocking and banging on all of the doors to get everyone awake, I think she even carried out a woman stuck in a wheelchair.

Ham & High: The fire which killed a man in West Hampstead's West End Sidings estate. Picture: Rachel MooreThe fire which killed a man in West Hampstead's West End Sidings estate. Picture: Rachel Moore (Image: Archant)

“When we got out the community was great, obviously with the baby people were offering us food and to help out.”

The woman who raised the alarm was Sanaz Ghanbari, 26.

Sanaz, who lives in the adjacent Barlow Road, said: “I heard broken glass so I thought that someone is breaking into someone’s house or something and I got up to look. Then I see the flat on fire.

“If I didn’t go around knocking, kicking and screaming they’d have had no warning, nothing.

“When I get to the top floor that is where the fire is I can see the flames outside the window and I can also hear screaming.”

Sanaz explained that she helped an elderly woman in a wheelchair to escape the flames. She added: “A lady was screaming ‘we are here but my mum is in a wheelchair’. I got her [the older woman] out with her daughter.”

At this stage the emergency services are still trying to account for the whereabouts and safety of residents in the block.

During the night a police helicopter and thermal imaging equipment was used to aid the evacuation.

A number of residents have been treated for smoke inhalation.

The fire’s cause is under investigation.

This page will be updated with more information as we get it. If you saw the fire, or have any further information contact Sam Volpe on the newsdesk on 07785616237 or sam.volpe@archant.co.uk