A COUPLE and their seven children are devastated after losing everything in a fire which gutted their home.

Neville Parker and Gemma Robertson returned to their semi-detached home in Drake Avenue, Dines Green, Worcester, yesterday to find a raging inferno.

Two crews of firefighters from Worcester were called to the blaze at the groundfloor home at 3pm and managed to bring it under control by 4.30pm.

Their home, managed by Worcester Community Housing, is now boarded up and all that remains of their stuff is a black and charred pile of rubbish in their front garden.

The family are now crammed into Miss Robertson's grandmother's two-bedroom home in nearby Gresham Road, Dines Green.

Even all the toys belonging to the children - Shania, aged seven, Shauna, aged six, Brodie, aged five, Darius, aged three, Tyler, aged one and twins Shakira and Boyd, four months old - were destroyed in the blaze.

Neighbours called 999 after spotting the fire, while the family were out visiting relatives.

Mr Parker, aged 42, said he had no home insurance because the couple, who are both unemployed and on benefits, could not afford it.

Mr Parker added: "We have lost everything out of the house, even the children's clothes and toys, a three-piece suite and all the photographs. We haven't even got a change of clothes. We think it may have been caused by an electrical fault. The fire brigade are still investigating it. The children are very upset.

"The house was perfect when we left it. I returned to the house to find the smoke alarm going off. I looked in the front door of the house and I had to come out quickly. It was a raging inferno. It was burning right up to the roof."

His partner of eight years Miss Robertson says she will visit her doctor today (Monday) to help her cope with the stress.

She said: "We're traumatised, devastated. My children were crying for most of the day yesterday. All our neighbours have been wonderful to us."

Edna Mason, aged 84, who has lived in the neighbouring semi for the last 54 years, said she was terrified the blaze would spread to her own home.

She said: "There was smoke filling my house. I have never seen anything like it. It was horrible. I'm quite shaken up. The windows next door were cracking with the heat."

A spokesman for Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that the cause of the fire was still being investigated.