A family has described how they 'lost everything' in a devastating fire after their house was struck by lightning.
Steve Force and his partner Rachel Partridge had been at home on Saturday night (21/9) when their property was rocked by a "massive bang".
Steve, 42, said the impact of the lightning strike "shook the whole house" before a neighbour knocked on the door to tell them their roof was on fire.
Firefighters rushed to the scene on Kitchen Lane, in Essington, Staffs., as the flames spread to three other properties at around 9pm.
Crews worked until 1.30am the following morning (Sun) to extinguish the blaze which destroyed Steve and Rachel's roof and badly damaged bedrooms.
Steve Force and his partner Rachel Partridge had been at home on Saturday night (21/9) when their property was rocked by a "massive bang".
Steve, 42, said the impact of the lightning strike "shook the whole house" before a neighbour knocked on the door to tell them their roof was on fire.
Firefighters rushed to the scene on Kitchen Lane, in Essington, Staffs., as the flames spread to three other properties at around 9pm.
Crews worked until 1.30am the following morning (Sun) to extinguish the blaze which destroyed Steve and Rachel's roof and badly damaged bedrooms.
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FunTranscript
00:00Steve, hello sir, not the nicest of circumstances I'm meeting you
00:08wonder, just fill us in on what's happened Steve. So basically lightning on
00:12Saturday night struck our roof, struck the chimney flume, set fire to the
00:17attic and then it spread out through the other four houses. Yeah and you were
00:23watching the lightning yourself as it was happening weren't you, but not
00:28realising I guess that it hit your house initially. No it wasn't until we heard the
00:33bang and the whole house shaking that we realised that it actually hit our
00:37house. So you literally felt the house kind of move with it? I felt the house shake when it hit, it was horrible. So who was in the house at the time Steve?
00:45Me, my missus, my daughter and the dog. Yeah and how old's your daughter then?
00:50My daughter's ten years old. Very scary then for everyone. She was petrified yeah. So was
00:55your first thoughts, well we've been it, fire maybe, is that what you were
01:00thinking like? When it first hit all the electricity went out so it was just about getting the
01:04electrics back on so we tripped the switches and then the neighbour across the road
01:08come and knocked on the door and he's the one that told us there's a little fire on your
01:12roof. Yeah. We went out and had a look and there was, so I came upstairs and opened the
01:16attic hatch and saw the black thick smoke just pillaring out of the hatch
01:22and it was just get everybody out. So I got my daughter and the dog, got her out into the car, went out to the missus who was on the phone to the fire brigade at the time and we started pounding on the neighbours doors
01:31because none of them had the slightest idea what was going on so we knocked on
01:35all the doors and got everybody out and made sure everyone was safe. How many
01:39houses is it affected then Steve? Well we had to evacuate six because the six
01:43are connected these terrace houses. Yeah. But it's four houses that have been affected
01:49there's only three of them in because one's empty. Yeah. So there's us, Michael and Jean's is empty and then there's Sarah's and then there's number 11 as well.
01:56Yeah and I mean we're in your daughter's room aren't we and how is she coping with it all?
02:02Is she kind of, is she staying strong with it or is she having nightmares you know what I mean?
02:07She's staying strong at the moment. She's had a few outbursts like you know, to be expected. It's still
02:13shock at the moment to be honest with you. Yeah. I think staying with family's
02:17helping because she's got her cousins to play with so it's keeping her mind occupied. Yeah.
02:20But yeah, it's the thought of losing all of her stuff. She's lost everything.
02:25Yeah. People don't realise, I mean you've got the issue, you've got the fire damage
02:29but then obviously the fire brigades do their great work and put it out so the
02:33whole thing doesn't burn down. But that leaves its own trail of destruction with
02:37the water doesn't it? Yeah, the water damage, it's amazing where it goes to.
02:41You just don't, we came in and it was just pouring everywhere. Yeah. I was allowed to
02:46come back in and get some stuff about one o'clock in the morning. Come and get a
02:49few bare essentials and water was just running down the walls, coming out of the
02:53light switches and everything and yeah, it was everywhere. Yeah. And any idea, so you're
02:58stopping with family over Shropshire at the minute. Any ideas, you know, what's
03:02happening, your own place and so on, you know, what's happening in the
03:08future Steve? Is it all up in the air? It was all up in the air until this morning.
03:12One of my customers is coming and she's got an empty house and she's
03:16going to be letting us stay there for a few months until it's sorted.
03:20Yeah. It's amazing how the community's pulled together, it really is and the
03:25love and all the donations and the help that we're getting from people is unreal.
03:30I bet you felt like crying didn't you when she said, look I'm going to let you
03:32stop in this house. It was a massive, massive relief. Yeah.
03:38My sister-in-law, she's absolutely amazing, has stepped up but obviously she's got a
03:43big family as well and so we crammed into one house, it's, you know, it's just
03:48good to have our own place to try and sort out. Yeah. So you literally had the
03:52water pouring through the ceiling in here then didn't you Steve? Yeah, the water was just pouring
03:55down through the ceiling, soaked all the sofas, the carpets, everything's been soaking.
04:00Well that's it, it's hard to appreciate that on footage but yeah, carpets and
04:03settees, they've gone in there, they've had it. It's absolutely ruined.
04:08But when something like this happens, does it take the property now? I mean,
04:12do you think, right, I want to get all this made over and I want to be back in
04:15here or are you a little bit thinking I don't want to be back here now or how's it work?
04:21Me and the missus talked about it, we know we're a bit torn. Part of us is we've lived here for 13
04:26years, we've loved this house. We've recently lost the neighbours next door because they both
04:31passed away but they were the main reason why we're staying here to be honest with you because
04:35they were an elderly couple and we really loved being next to them. So we're umming and ahhing
04:40about what we're going to do. It's a nice area to live in, it really is, it's a nice little village
04:47but, you know, we come back and we're constantly thinking about it all the time. What if, you know,
04:54look what happened and things like that. Fresh paint and fresh plaster, is it going to feel like
04:59home again? I can imagine, well imagine you stand here thinking exactly that, you know, how is this
05:04going to be a comfy bedroom again for my daughter but I guess it is amazing what happens and, you
05:10know, you move on and you kind of, your autopilot kicks in. So has it made you reflect on, you know,
05:17life and what things are worth and so on? Well you realise that life, like family and people, that's
05:23all that matters isn't it at the end of the day. It really is, possessions that can all be replaced
05:28and like I said it's, you know, it's family that's all that matters and the love we get from the
05:33community, I didn't realise there was that kind of people around still, you know, that so many people
05:38are reaching out, friends, family, or even simple things just like a message, are you okay and things
05:44like that. You just don't expect it and it all helps, it really does, it's just, you know. Yeah, there's some
05:49good people about still isn't there? Yeah, there is. Yeah, yeah. Well we wish you all the best getting back
05:55on your feet chap, I mean, you know, what a life lesson for your daughter to have had so young.
06:01Obviously not one you'd have chose for her to have but, yeah, puts a lot of things in perspective
06:06doesn't it when this happens, like you say, about what's important in life. Yeah. Well all the best
06:10Steve, with you and your family. Oh, thank you.