Family's devastation as home hit by lightning

A householder has spoken of his devastation after his house caught fire when it was hit by lightning.

Firefighters were called to Kitchen Lane, Essington, at 21:10 BST on Saturday after reports of houses set alight.

While nobody was injured, four properties suffered damage after wind caused the flames to spread across the roofs and three properties were evacuated.

Steven Force, whose family have been forced to leave their home, said: "We're lucky no one died."

Mr Force said his family were "absolutely devastated", with "pretty much everything" in their home of 13 years destroyed by smoke or water damage.

This included furniture, the electrics and family heirlooms.

The family had been watching the storm on their cameras when they heard a "deafening bang", which Mr Force was told was the lightning hitting their central heating flume.

A man from across the road then knocked on the door and told them there was "a little bit of a fire on your roof".

Mr Force said he had gone into his attic to investigate, telling the BBC: "As soon as I opened the hatch, there was just black smoke everywhere."

After putting his daughter and dog in the car, Mr Force and his wife knocked on their neighbours' doors to evacuate everyone.

"By the time we'd done that [the fire] was just engulfing all the roofs, the wind was that strong it was just pushing it across," he said.

The father-of-three said they were "extremely lucky" that no one was hurt and that a fire officer had told them he had been to smaller fires where he had seen fatalities.

The family-of-five are now staying with Mr Force's sister in Telford, but might have to consider renting as housing association Midland Heart said the house could take months to get fixed.

Debbie Woodley, a friend of another resident on the street, has organised a fundraiser after her friend, who has three daughters, lost her home to the "devastating four-hour fire".

Ms Woodley said: "They've lost their whole life, memories, home and all their worldly possessions."

She said the family were not aware their home was alight until panicked neighbours banged on their door.

"They heard the bang but didn't realise their house was alight," she told Radio WM.

"Water was falling through the roof and then it caught alight in a few seconds."

One neighbour in the area described the storm as the "worst thunder and lightning anyone had ever seen."

Ms Woodley added that after being best friends for 35 years she wanted to "try my best to help out, I'd do anything for them".

The lightning strike came during a weekend of storms that led to flooded streets, power cuts and evacuations.

The Met Office has issued an amber warning for rain from 05:00 until 21:00 on Monday across parts of central England, where up to a month's worth of rain could fall in a day. While a yellow rain warning is in place across the West Midlands.

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