AN ECKINGTON woman's home was destroyed by a lightning strike during Tuesday night's storms, while she was on holiday.

Fire gutted the semi-detached house in Eckington and smoke from the fire could be seen throughout the village as Evesham and Pershore fire crews rushed to the scene.

Householder, Katherine Clark of Hacketts Lane, was due to have returned from her holiday in Dawlish, Devon, yesterday but changed her plans after hearing about the disaster.

Mrs Clarke's son, Michel Clark and daughter-in-law Denise Clark were the first to rush over to his mother's home and waited for the fire services.

Mr Clark said: "We just saw smoke coming from this direction and rushed over to see if everything was okay. There's nothing more I can say. These things happen we're just glad she wasn't here at the time."

The lightning bolt struck the television aerial placed on the rooftop causing the fire to spread through to the upstairs landing setting fire to furniture in the house.

Meanwhile, rainwater was pouring in through the hole in the roof causing serious damage adding to the fire damage.

Denise Clark said: "My mother-in-law has lost everything. There were valuable items in there, which belonged to her mother - they simply cannot be replaced.

"She is really lucky that she wasn't in the home at the time it happened but due to this there are a lot of things that we just cannot replace."

The lightning caused a blackout leaving many of the neighbours in Hacketts Lane without electricity.

Bob Perkins who has lived next door to Mrs Clark for the past ten years first noticed the effects of the bad weather when his television suddenly went off.

He said: "I noticed the television had gone off last night just before 9pm. It wasn't until my other neighbours told us that they could see smoke coming out of Kath's house did I realise the extent of the damage."

Sub Officer Julian Jenkins from Evesham fire station said: " It was a very unpleasant incident that occurred here and the weather conditions contributed to this. The householder has our deepest sympathy."