HERO neighbours used ladders and a garden hose to fight the flames after a lightning strike set fire to a house.

A bolt of lightning struck the house during a storm over the village of Bearpark, near Durham City, at around 7pm tonight and set fire to the loft and its contents.

Neighbours battled to keep the flames in check fearing a family was trapped inside until fire crews arrived to put the fire out and search the detached house in Blackburn Close.

Joiner Marcus Thain said he had been visiting a friend nearby when the storm broke.

The 41-year-old said: “All of a sudden there was an unbelievable bang and a crash as the lightning struck.

“I ran up the street and saw the roof was going up in flames.”

Mr Thain and friend Clark Charlton, a 35-year-old scaffolder, grabbed a nearby ladder and garden hose and put it up against the burning house to try to fight the flames.

He said: “The whole loft was on fire and I just got up to the roof and did what I could.

“I don’t normally do heights, if a customer asked me to go up that high I wouldn’t – I hate heights, but I just thought there were kids in the house, the only thought I had was for the family who live there.

“The firemen said it could have been worse if we hadn’t done what we did.”

Neighbours said the family, who had lived in the street for less than a year, were away from home at the time, possibly on holiday.

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service sent two fire engines from Durham, one from Consett and an aerial ladder platform to the scene.

Gary Bankhead, Watch Manager at Durham City Fire Station, said the lightning struck the apex of the roof and set fire to the loft space and household goods stored there.

He said: “Local residents used a garden hose reel to try to stop the fire spreading because there were flames coming from the roof.

“They did a good job to control the fire until we arrived to put it out.

“They have been very brave because the fire was quite intense, but they couldn’t really extinguish it with a hose reel.”

Fire crews then doused the flames while two officers wearing breathing apparatus went inside the burning building to carry out a thorough search to make certain the property was empty.

Mr Bankhead said: “There have been a number of lightning strikes in our area over the last few days. One of the houses in the next cul-de-sac was hit last week.”