A fire which ripped through a family's house may have been accidentally started by a four-year-old girl with a gas stove lighter.

Robin Thapa, 38, and his wife Mirinwon Hongsha, 34, were at home in Lansdown Road, Canterbury, with their four children and Mirinwon's parents when a blaze broke out on the top floor.

The family had finished dinner and were getting ready to go to bed when their four-year-old daughter, Zulay, raised the alarm at just before 8pm on Sunday.

Robin believes she may have started the fire with the kitchen lighter, adding: "I don't know how she managed to get it."

Mirinwon, a trainee nurse at Canterbury Christ Church University, said: "Zulay came downstairs saying 'mummy, fire, mummy, fire'."

"I've never experienced fire. I've seen it in movies, but when you see it in your house, it's very scary. I have never seen anything like it in my life.

"The noise was like gunfire."

Realising the house was filling with smoke, Mirinwon called 999 and the family fled across the road to a neighbour's house

Although three fire crews brought the flames under control within half-an-hour, the blaze left the entire upper floor burned out.

All of the family's clothing, bedding and other possessions, which were kept upstairs, were either destroyed or contaminated by smoke.

Robin, who works as a driver for Canterbury Taxis, said: "It's shocking. I just can't believe it. It was so quick, there was no time.

"The room [where the fire started] is all gone. The windows are gone and everything. And the smoke has left everything black. I never thought something like this could happen."

The couple are now staying at a Travelodge with their two daughters, who attend Wincheap Primary School, and two sons, aged three and 19 months, and do not know when they will be able to move back into their home.

They fear the house, which they bought five years ago, could be uninhabitable for months.

A fundraising page has now been set up by neighbour Ernest Brenchley to help with costs such as replacing clothing, bedding, carpets and redecorating.

Robin continued: "All the community, friends and neighbours have come together to support us and without them, things would be really hard.

"The main thing is that we want to get back to our normal lives as soon as possible."

A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue Service says crews used breathing gear to enter the house and tackle the flames.

"The cause of the fire is being treated as accidental," they added.

Two volunteers from the British Red Cross also helped on Sunday, providing clothing and toiletries.

Donate to the fundraising appeal here.