A lightning strike burnt through the top floor of a house last night - completely destroying a bedroom.

The cottage on Bow Hill, Wateringbury, was struck by lightning at around 7:30pm, as the son of the owners, David Peters, was leaving to go to a friend’s house.

“I was just leaving when there was a very loud bang and the power went off. I didn’t think it had hit the house, I thought it was just nearby,” the 18-year-old said.

“I thought I’d just sort the power out when I got home.”

It is thought that the fire broke out soon afterwards, as neighbours were alerted soon after 8pm. Firefighters were called to the scene at 8:30pm.

Genny Newby, who lives next door with her husband Bob and their 21-year-old daughter Kate, was unaware of the fire until a man who lives nearby came to alert them.

“We heard a very loud bang and I thought ‘gosh, that’s close’, so went upstairs to see if anything had happened, but nothing had.

A man from Tonbridge Road, who I believe was called Alan, saw the flames and came to help,” she said.

Four engines attended the scene, and Mrs Newby believed that some had been stuck at the bottom of the single track lane that leads to the cottages.

Mr and Mrs Peters are currently away, so their son David was the only member of the family at the scene.

He had a phone call from a family friend, Sam Pain, who told him she could see the fire from her house, and not to go home.

David returned to the house around 9pm to find that his parents’ bedroom had been destroyed by the fire, and that rainwater had leaked through the floor into his 16-year-old sister’s room.

“The heat from the fire seems to have melted some of her belongings, but thankfully none of us were in the house,” he said.

Robert Peters, David’s father, had added an extension to the cottage and renovated the existing building.

It is believed that the building materials used prevented the fire from spreading to the other cottages in the terrace.

The building is currently believed to be in a precarious state, as the main supporting beam in the roof has been burned out by the fire.