A five-year-old boy from Manor Park spotted a fire in a block of flats last week saving the residents inside.

Smart Riley Barry, from Worcester Road, was walking back from the shops on Wednesday with his mother Mandy Taylor when he noticed dense smoke rising from residential buildings in Sixth Avenue.

Mother Mandy did not notice the fire until Riley said: “Mummy, I can smell fire, look, there’s black smoke in that house.”

She promptly called the emergency services who sent an engine at 8.30pm.

His sister Lauren said: “He was really happy with himself and everyone here is really proud of him but I think he deserves some recognition for what he did. He was really smart and brave about it and he’s only five.”

Riley, a pupil at Dersingham Infant School, insisted on staying until firemen from the Ilford brigade arrived and watched them battle the blaze for 20 minutes.

An Ilford fireman who was on service at the time said that a fire alarm was actuated and the brigade received numerous calls that evening.

The flat residents left the building as soon as they realised there was a fire but one woman still had to attend hospital due to smoke inhalation. No one was seriously harmed but the bedroom incurred serious fire damage, the windows smashed and the rest of the flat was severely smoke damaged.