A FAMILY's lifetime of treasured memories were destroyed in a fire which ripped through their home of nearly 50 years. Within just a few minutes childhood photographs, wartime letters to penfriends and mementoes of loved ones went up in smoke in the blaze at Pennant Road, Rochester.

Ahmed Pashir, 63 and his wife, June, 71, were lucky to get out alive as flames engulfed the entire first floor and loft. They had been sleeping downstairs because of the smell of a smouldering overheated electric blanket upstairs. Mr Pashir had dampened the blanket but it re-ignited, sparking off the fire.

They were awoken at 4.30am on Saturday by the sound of an exploding Champagne cork popping and fled in their night clothes.

Surveying the charred debris outside her home, where her two children were born, Mrs Pashir has vowed to move back in as soon as possible.

Mrs Pashir stressed: "We will still live there, but we have lost everything. We will have to start again from scratch." She said it is the loss of the irreplacable things which has most upset her, such as schoolbooks from her childhood and gifts from her late best friend.