A family watched in horror after a fire tore through the roof of their house.

Diane and George Dibben and their two children have been left homeless after flames spread to the roof of their home in Kings Road, Southminster.

Mrs Dibben, 60, said: “I was sitting in the living room and suddenly thought I could hear fireworks.

“There were all these bangs and whizzes so I looked out the window and all of that side of the house was bright orange.

“I called the fire service but by the time they got here the flames were in the roof.”

The roof of the house caught alight just after 10.45pm last Wednesday.

The fire service battled for several hours to extingish the flames and were finally able to put them out by 1am.

The fire is being treated as non-suspicious.

See todays MBS for the full story