An heroic electrician saved dozens of people from an inferno by evacuating a blazing block of flats.

Carlos Mayhew, 32, risked his own life to bang on residents’ doors in Chandos Mansions, in South Norwood after spotting the roof of the building was alight.

The early morning drama enabled 50 people to escape the flats and neighbouring buildings as more than 40 firefighters took three hours to tackle the blaze.

Mr Mayhew discovered the entire roof of the building was on fire after he returned home from a night out at 2.30am on Saturday.

He heard a noise coming from the stairwell and investigated and was horrified to see flames.

He called the fire brigade who told him to start evacuating people.

Mr Mayhew said: “I went around banging on all the doors to get people out. People were screaming, they were scared.”

He tried to run upstairs to save the people living on the upper floor but the blaze had spread.

He said: “Things were falling from the roof, burning my head, I did not want to chance it. The roof was just about to fall in. I ran downstairs, people were screaming out of the windows for help.”

Eight fire-engines arrived at the scene with more than 40 firemen to tackle the blaze.

A group rushed into Chandos Mansions to rescue two people from the burning upper floor, while others evacuated neighbouring residents.

Mr Mayhew said: “The firemen arrived with their protective gear and carried out the people. One of the ladies was in a wheelchair and could not walk so they carried her down the stairs.

“We just about got out in time.”

St Mark’s Church opened its doors to the families made homeless by the blaze and the British Red Cross stepped in to help while fire services struggled to get the fire under control.

The council’s emergency response team set up rest centres in the area for evacuees and looked after 50 people over the course of the evening.

Many people, wearing only their pyjamas, were given food and extra clothes.

Most of the evacuees stayed with friends or their families.

Seventeen people were provided with emergency bed and breakfast accommodation over the weekend.

Six families with no other means of support were given temporary accommodation by the council on Monday morning.

Mr Mayhew, who is currently unemployed, said: “It’s a very hard time right now, my flat has gone up in smoke so I am homeless.”

A spokesman from the fire department said: “The fire damaged a large part of the roof of the four floor block of flats. Part of the third floor was also damaged. About 13 people left the building before the brigade arrived.”

The brigade had to battle four other fires in the early hours of the morning in South Norwood.

These included a fire in a disused pub on Portland Road at 1.20am, a ground floor flat alight in Carmichael Road at about 2am and a blaze in some bins.