“the 20 residents initially taken to a leisure centre had been moved to a hotel early on Thursday morning.

“The houses were absolutely gutted. Their cars were damaged too,

“Even this morning I've had calls asking me can I bring food. Can I bring clothing? Can I bring blankets? So everyone is trying to help as much as they can. It's devastating. The council are co-ordinating what's going to happen next but it's going to be a long-term thing. It's not going to happen overnight. So we are just sending our best wishes to everybody, and hope that they can re-build what they can and get back on their feet.

“Many of those people have lived there for many many years. It's their life. It's gone.

“We'd just hosted a large event and I was surrounded by thousands of popped balloons,

“When we were in our living room, and we thought that another sporadic rainstorm hit Chicago, so we go outside in the windows, next thing you know, we just hear like lights everywhere

“the house had been attacked again overnight and that a few settlers remained in the area, hiding from the army

“residents had tried to put the fire out but could not because it had been so severe.