Friends Tom Raeburn and Paul Lingham have been reliving the M5 death crash horror they came face to face with as they drove home on last Friday evening.

The pair ended up just yards from the inferno of trucks and cars which has claimed the lives of at least seven people.

All they could do was watch helplessly as flames, shooting up to 30ft into the sky, engulfed many of the wrecked vehicles following the massive crash which left another 51 people injured.

Tom and Paul were trapped on the opposite carriageway to the disaster for more than eight hours as firefighters, police and ambulance personnel attempted to put out the fireball, rescue trapped drivers and passengers and treat the injured.

Chef Tom, 23, said: 'I could see a massive fire. Lorries were jacknifed with cars intertwined in the lorries and the fire was behind all that.

'There were mangled cars and lorries with the flames coming over the top.

'There were people everywhere. People sat all over the road.

'People were crying and shouting and children were crying.

'There were people wrapped in foil blankets. They were sat everywhere on the central reservation, with paramedics trying to help the injured.'

Paul, also 23, said: 'We could not get close because of the fire. All we could do was watch.'

The investigation into the cause of the crash on the northbound carriage of the motorway near Taunton is under way and police are continuing to look at whether smoke from the aftermath of a rugby club firework display could have blanketed the motorway.

Both Tom and Paul reported seeing a black cloud across the motorway as they arrived at the scene of the crash, although it cleared almost immediately.

Paul said: 'All the way down the road was clear but as we got there there was a load of dark smoke or fog around. Visibility was really bad at that spot.'

And Tom added: 'It was around us very quickly and very, very thick, and then it just went.'

So far the death toll from the crash includes two lorry drivers – one from Cornwall and one from Gloucestershire – along with an elderly couple from Newport in South Wales and a man from Woolavington in Somerset, and a man and woman from Windsor in Berkshire, in what is one of the worst motorway disasters on Britain's roads.

Tom, of Lower Street, Dartmouth, and Paul of Northford Road, Dartmouth, had been travelling back to the town from Maidenhead where they had picked up Tom's car after travelling up by train

Paul was driving and Tom was asleep when they were forced to a halt within what appears to be seconds of the crash.

Paul, who works as a self employed landscaper, said: 'The motorway traffic began to slow down and I could see a small fire and I thought it was a bonfire or something.

'Then we could see vehicles on the road and we knew it was a pile-up.

'As we stopped the fire started to spread. The fire was at least 20 to 30ft high and terribly hot.

'I keep thinking could there have been anything I could have done to help people but there was nothing else we could do.'

Tom said their car came a halt some 30 yards from the lead lorry in the pile-up, with the flames behind that.

'The fire was huge and it was really hot and intense. It was out of control. Going into a massive ball of flame wouldn't have helped anyone but it was horrible because you were left standing there and you wanted to help.'

Surrounded by emergency vehicles of all kinds both the friends were left watching the horror unfolding throughout the night as the emergency services fought to help the injured.

Meanwhile, the drivers caught up in the accident took the un-injured into their cars to keep them warm as the emergency operation continued.

Tom and Paul were in one of the last of the cars to be allowed off the motorway.

'We were trapped for eight or nine hours at the front of six miles of traffic. We were one of the last 15 cars to get off the motorway,' said Tom.

He said that when he finally got home and tried to sleep all he could see was flashing lights and fire.