People watch in horror as the smoke billows into the night sky; below, the damage to The Sam Morris Nursery revealed in the morning

A MUCH-LOVED Finsbury Park nursery hailed a “massive part of the community” has been destroyed after a fire ripped through it late on Monday night.

Ten fire engines and 70 firefighters attended The Sam Morris Nursery, with a team still hosing down a smouldering area of the building at around 5pm on Tuesday. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

The nursery, which cares for around 30 children and employs around 12 members of staff, sits in a two-story building next to Isledon Gardens park on Parkside Crescent off Isledon Road. It has served the local area since 1996.

Rachel Beattie, whose flat backs onto the park, told the Tribune she was on her way to Lidl when she heard a fire alarm.

“I should have taken a little bit more consideration,” she said. “I was in a bit of a rush and I went to do some shopping, came home and heard my phone pinging. Someone on the residents’ group on WhatsApp had put a photo up of the fire.”

Ms Beattie then woke up her neighbours and went down to the park

“It was shocking, it had really taken hold of the nursery,” she said. “I didn’t get to sleep till about three or four in the morning because I wanted to come down and check that they’d got a hold of it. It’s amazing to see the job they [the firefighters] did. So grateful.”

One staff member who spoke to the Tribune from the scene but did not want to be named, said: “It’s just so sad. I am so sad. I have woken up and now I don’t have a job and neither do my colleagues. All of these parents have woken up with nowhere for their children to go, and they might have to not go to work. It is heartbreaking.”

Louise Rigg is one such parent who also lives next to Isledon Gardens. Her eldest son just left Sam Morris to start primary school and her youngest is currently enrolled at the nursery.

She called the nursery her family’s “lifeline” and said it was the only reason her family still lived in Finsbury Park, where she has lived since 2010.

“We have no family in the local area,” she added. “That nursery is our community, the parents are our community, the people who work there are our community. I did their ironing for their nursery graduation gowns. If I’ve had to put them into nursery and we took them out at lunchtime, they’d say: ‘would you like to take a dinner home?’”

Fire crews were still damping down the building the following day

Ms Rigg told the Tribune that nursery staff arrived at the scene at around 1am and stood outside as firefighters attempted to control the blaze.

“I was taking cups of tea out and people were using our toilet,” she said.

“Because we’re a community on the street and it’s all part of it. They care so much for their families. We are a massive part of them and they are a massive part of us. They’ve got us out of scrapes when we’ve had tube strikes and things like that and we can’t get to work.

“The idea that we’ve lost them is just soul-destroying right now. We’ve had their birthday parties there. So it’s shocking.”

Jessica Pita attended the nursery herself as a child, and said enrolling her own daughter at Sam Morris was “the best decision I made for her”.

“All the lovely staff are amazing with the children and I couldn’t have picked a better bunch of people to take care of her.”

Her son was just in his second week at the nursery before the fire happened.

“We are extremely saddened with what happened to the nursery and because of my loyalty and trust in Sam Morris, I will be keeping my son home until Sam Morris is back,” she said.

The Tribune understands that the families are still waiting for the council to arrange interim childcare and that the nursery is yet to find a new site to operate from.

Emma Morgan, whose two children went to Sam Morris, said: “For me, it’s the staff that make the nursery. At the end of the day, it’s bricks and mortar, isn’t it? But it was the staff and the really low turnover of staff. The whole time we’ve been there, it was the same staff. The manager, Sandra, she pours her heart and soul into that nursery.”

The Tribune tried to contact The Sam Morris Nursery by phone and email and asked neighbours to put us in contact with them, but all attempts were unsuccessful.