Sudden heatwave causes collapsed roofs on row of £1million houses in south London

Writer Will Self is lucky to be alive after the roof of his £1 million house collapsed while he was inside with his children.

The journalist and author led his two sons to safety after the roof came down on his and four of his neighbours' homes in Stockwell, south London, last night.

The freak incident is being blamed on yesterday's sudden heatwave, when temperatures leaped almost 10 degrees in less than 24 hours.
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Self’s wife, journalist Deborah Orr, wrote about the incident on Twitter.

She said: 'Our house, and the four neighbouring houses, are OVER.'
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She later added: 'It’s emergency services central. Helicopters, the lot.'
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One of Mr Self's neighbours, Julia Wiley, 48, was also home when the roof parapet of her three storey Victorian townhouse collapsed.

She described the sound as a 'whoop, crack and crash'.
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Nova said:

I don't understand the concept, wfgodot. Here in the desert we are used to temps over 110 Farenheit and below freezing. Of course that's not usually on the same day, but a 50 degree (still Farenheit) difference between day and night temps is not at all uncommon.

Our roofs don't fall in because of it. ???

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