Families fled after a top-floor flat exploded in flames early today.

Phil Shield and his nine-year-old son Jack had to leave after the blast rocked the flat above.

Neighbours on either side of the property in Addison Road, Hove, were also led to safety as firefighters battled the inferno.

The blaze began in the flat while the occupant, a taxi driver, was at work.

It is believed an electrical fault in a vacuum cleaner sparked the blaze which had been burning for about an hour before the blast.

Mr Shield said: "Some neighbours at the back had been having a barbecue and I had seen sparks coming up from their garden during the evening.

"Then I saw sparks coming down but I assumed it was from the barbecue.

"Just after midnight there was a huge explosion which blew the windows out of the flat above.

"There were flames shooting out of the windows. I went to wake Jack and we got out pretty rapidly."

Jack, a pupil at St Paul's School, Brighton, said: "I thought my dad was joking at first when he said there was a fire and we had to get out.

"I was staying with him for the night and had all my Warhammer models, which I was painting, in the flat.

"I was scared about the fire but I was more worried that I would lose the models."

Craig Shell, 26, and his sister Greta, 21, who live on one side of the flat, and a family of four with two young girls on the other side were told by fire crews to leave their homes.

Craig arrived home about 20 minutes before the fireball.

He said: "I could smell smoke but couldn't see any flames so didn't think any more about it.

"Then there was this huge bang which at first I thought had come from my sister's room on the top floor. I ran up to see if she was all right and realised the bang had come from next door."

Greta said: "I was asleep when the explosion woke me up and was still half asleep when Craig came in.

"We could see flames shooting out in front of my windows.

"I suppose I am lucky the explosion blew out the windows next door and did not blow my bedroom wall in on me."

James Rand, who lives in the ground floor flat, said: "I was just closing the back door to lock up for the night.

"There was a huge bang and the windows blew out of the top flat and came crashing down in flames into the garden in front of me.

"I saw the fire coming out of the flat and ran across to neighbours to phone the fire brigade."

Sub officer Andrew Gauden said: "It was a serious fire. It had burst through the windows, which alerted the neighbours - half the street called in.

"The flat has been gutted."