A family have been sorting through the wreckage of their home after a fire in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The blaze destroyed the kitchen in an extension on the detached house and badly damaged the other rooms with thick smoke.

Wendy Harris, 34, her two children Emma, 12, and Alex, nine, and her partner Peter Twydell, 43, were believed to be trapped inside the burning house at London Road, Copford.

Firefighters broke in to find three coats hanging above three pairs of shoes and feared the family were somewhere in the house.

But the children were staying with relatives while Mrs Harris and Mr Twydell were at a works party in Marks Tey.

Sifting through the charred remains trying to salvage what possessions were left this morning, Mr Twydell said it was a terrible end to the year.

"We have got nothing left. We've no clothes - everything has gone. All the Christmas presents were inside as well," he said.

"It is devastating really. It is all your life savings just gone up in smoke."

But Mr Twydell was thankful no-one was hurt in the blaze.

"Fortunately there was no-one in there. The main thing is that no-one was hurt."

Crews arriving on the scene from Colchester and Coggeshall found the kitchen ablaze with flames and smoke pouring from the windows.

While the flames were tackled with hosereel water jets six firefighters wearing breathing apparatus searched the house.

They found it was empty apart from a cat, hamster and goldfish which were all safely rescued. The hamster was given oxygen in the back of the fire engine.

Firefighter Steve Kerridge said: "It could have been an electrical fault in the washing machine.

"A lady opposite saw flames from her window when she looked out.

"When we got there the kitchen was well alight and all the house was heavily smoke-logged."

Mr Kerridge added: "The kitchen was pretty much destroyed by fire along with some of the hallway and there was heavy smoke damage to the rest of the house."

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