'A lightning strike set our house on fire and destroyed treasured things that can never be replaced'
A family has been left without "anything" and will likely be unable to spend Christmas in their own home after a lightning strike caused a devastating fire which spread to three other properties.
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Steve Force, his partner Rachel Partridge and their three children lost photographs and family heirlooms when their house on Kitchen Lane, Essington, near Wolverhampton, went up in flames on Saturday evening.
On the night of the fire, Steve and Rachel were at home with pet pooch Sky and 10-year-old daughter, Amelia, who was tracking the lightning strikes.
It was at around 8.45pm when the family were alerted to a "massive bang", which "shook the whole house".
Steve, a car detailer, said: "I have never heard anything so loud in my life. The electrics went out, my daughter started screaming and the dog was going crazy.
"Then we heard a knock on the door. The guy who lives opposite us said 'there is a little fire on your roof' so we went outside and looked and we thought 'it is not too bad'.
"Rachel started calling the fire brigade so I went upstairs, opened the attic hatch and there was thick, black smoke. I closed the hatch, got my daughter and the dog and put them in the car.
