A FAMILY are appealing for help in finding a cat believed to have escaped when their house burned to the ground.

Fire broke out at the converted barn on Sherridge Road, Leigh Sinton, while tenants Alan and Caroline Bingham were out.

Firefighters battled through thick fog to reach the Old Packing House at about 10.40pm last Saturday (March 19). The Binghams returned at about 11.30pm to discover they had lost everything. The couple are now staying with friends.

Their daughter Katherine who, with her sister Mary was away at university at the time, said her parents were traumatised by the fire and had pinned their hopes on finding one of their cats alive.

"My mum is an absolute cat lover," she said.

"We believe two of her cats died in there but one of them escaped. We think he may have jumped out of a window.

"The fire service said they were pretty certain there were two cat bodies. The other could have run for miles."

Katherine described the cat, called Billy, as a microchipped, eight-month-old blue-grey tom. She described another, who had a very slim chance of survival, as a 15-year-old blue-grey female called Sophie.

Anyone who sees a cat answering one of the descriptions is asked to call Katherine on 07967 650504.

The fire brigade is not treating the fire as suspicious.