An elderly woman died as fire ripped through a sheltered housing block on bank holiday Monday evening.

More than 30 pensioners were left huddling terrified in the cold after the building was evacuated.

Twenty firefighters spent two hours tackling the blaze while the residents were taken in by a nearby church.

The pensioner, named locally as Betty Brittain who was in her 80s, was discovered by firefighters in her burned-out flat and pronounced dead at the scene.

One elderly resident described how her frightened friends and neighbours were told to wait in their rooms as the fire tore through the downstairs flat and smoke billowed from the windows into Canning Road, Addiscombe.

She said: “It was terrifying because we didn’t know what was going to happen.

“It was after 11pm before we got back in – I grabbed my coat, but it was bitterly cold out there and not everyone managed to.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this.

“We heard someone died but they haven’t told us anything.”

Firefighters burst in to rescue tenants from Edward Jobson Court, a warden assisted block run by the Housing 21 housing association.

Another resident, who did not wish to be named, praised members of the Canning and Clyde Road Residents’ Association for looking after residents as the fire blazed.

She said: “They were absolutely first rate – real troopers.

“There were several of them there providing hot drinks and they did it so spontaneously – they really are local heroes.”

The evacuees were looked after in the hall at neighbouring St Mary Magdalene Church before being let back into their homes just after 11pm.

Paul Richards, director of housing services for Housing 21, said: “We were deeply saddened by the tragic death of one of our residents. Our thoughts and condolences go to their family.

“Two other flats close to the source of the fire have been badly damaged and residents of those flats are being re-housed locally until they are able to return to their homes.

“The cause of the fire is still unknown and is being investigated by the fire service.”

Police arrested a 33-year-old man yesterday morning on suspicion of murder and arson, but he was released after officers stopped treating the incident as suspicious.

A postmortem examination was expected to be carried out today.