A fire chief has praised the “absolutely brilliant” rescue by his crew of two young girls hanging out of the windows next to a raging first-floor flat fire in Wealdstone.

Pushminder Vagarwal, Wembley Fire Station manager, said firefighters had acted “perfectly” by rescuing one girl by a ladder and another by entering the home next door to an empty blazing flat in Headstone Drive, which was billowing with smoke at just after 2.10pm this afternoon.

Nobody was injured by the fire in the flat above shops, but some neighbours had a narrow escape as they fled outside through smoke-filled corridors.

One man, who had tried to climb the outside wall of the flats in a bid to rescue the trapped girls, was standing outside in shock cradling his pet dog.

He was praised by the shopkeeper of Heriot Catering for his “really brave” rescue attempt.

The tenant whose home had caught alight, a woman in her 40s, looked distraught as she returned to the block and was told of the blaze by fire crews. It took about an hour to bring the fire under control.

Station manager Vagarwal told the Harrow Times  the fire was already “well developed” when a well-meaning neighbour kicked the front door down to check if anyone was inside, causing the smoke to fill the corridors of the block and panic among residents.

He added: “When we arrived we had people hanging from the windows so the crews did really well and committed ladders to the back to rescue the young ladies.

“We didn’t know if there was anyone trapped inside the flat on fire at that point, and the corridors were filled with smoke, so the crews did an absolutely brilliant job.”

Investigators were already working to establish the cause of the blaze as nearby roads were reopened at just before 5pm.