Villagers have expressed their shock after a large fire broke out in a quiet residential street in Hopton, leaving homes damaged.

Great Yarmouth Mercury: Shed fire in Bishops Walk, Hopton. Picture: Aimee HutchersonShed fire in Bishops Walk, Hopton. Picture: Aimee Hutcherson (Image: Archant)

The blaze started in a garden shed in Bishops Walk just before 2.30pm yesterday and spread to neighbouring bungalows.

Three fire crews from Great Yarmouth were called to the scene and surrounding residents were evacuated from their homes while they tackled the flames.

Aimee Hutcherson, 21, who lives in nearby Anglian Way, was among those who fled her home. The mother-of-two said: 'I was upstairs getting changed and I heard a massive bang. I ran downstairs and said to my mate I thought it was a gun shot.

'Then I went back upstairs, looked out the window and there was smoke and flames everywhere.'

Betty Screaton, 68, who has lived in Bishops Walk for nearly four years, had gone out to the back of her home and seen smoke.

'I phoned the fire brigade because I know how big these things can go up and it did very quickly,' she said. 'I went next door and helped the people out, it was their shed, and then the fire brigade came. They were very quick.'

Mrs Screaton, a mother of three, said the flames had damaged the windows at the back of her home but praised her neighbours for rallying round and helping each other.

'Everybody knows everybody else so everybody helps. It's a lovely community,' she added.

Another neighbour, who did not wish to be named, echoed her thoughts and said many residents had gone to the nearby White Hart pub, where they were offered drinks and food while they waited for the all-clear from fire crews.

She said: 'We'd been to the pub for Sunday lunch, came back and as we did my daughter said 'someone's got a bit of a barbecue' and then we saw the smoke was coming from here and started running.

'It's such a shock, it just happened so quickly.'

No one is believed to have been injured in the fire.

Police sealed off the area while firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used main and hose reel jets to extinguish the flames, as well as a thermal imaging camera to check for hotspots.