A family of five were left homeless last night after a fire gutted their Devonshire home.

Neighbours who spotted the fire thought it started just before 5 p.m in one of the upstairs bedrooms of the house on Cedar Park Road.

Tracy Bean said he saw smoke as he was heading away from his mother's home nearby.

He said: "As I drove away, I saw a light smoke coming from one of the upper windows of the house, but I didn't think anything of it.

"Then as I drove off I saw a lot more smoke coming from a window on the other side of the house and I turned the car around."

Mr. Bean said his cousin, Preston Mallory, climbed up and entered one of the bedrooms to see where the smoke was coming from,while he stayed behind and called the Fire Service on his cell phone.

Mr. Mallory, who lived a few doors away from the blazing house, said: "I climbed up to the window and went in, but I couldn't see anything other than the smoke.

"I sang out to see if anyone was home, but no one answered."

Bonnie Wilson, her mother, two children and her niece all lived in the house, but fortunately they were not home at the time the blaze started.

However, she arrived at the scene just seconds before fire-fighters arrived and could not believed what she was seeing.

She said she had no idea how the blaze had been ignited, but she believed it had totally gutted the property. A distraught Ms Wilson, who was reluctant to speak, said: "I was just coming home from work and I saw smoke coming from my house.

"I just can't believe it. I don't know what we are going to do."

Bermuda Fire Service spokesman Lt. Dana Lovell said 11 fire-fighters and three fire appliances responded to the blaze after the call came in at 5.10 p.m. "When the fire-fighters arrived on the scene, lots of smoke was billowing out of the windows," said Lt. Lovell. "They had to force entry because doors throughout the home were locked. We are trying to find the seat of the fire to determine how it began. There is a lot of smoke damage to the whole property."

The fire was completely extinguished at 5.47 p.m., but fire investigators remained on the scene trying to find the cause of the fire.