A FAMILY-OF-FIVE have been left homeless after a devastating fire swept through their thatched home.

Five bedrooms, a living room, dining room and playroom were all destroyed in the blaze at the house in Lower Radley, where flames could be seen leaping 10ft above the roof.

Seventy firefighters and 10 fire engines were called after the fire broke out in the thatched roof shortly before 8.15pm on Monday.

But Graham Steinsberg, his wife Caroline and their children, Sophia, 14, Victoria, 12, and Henry, 10, all got out safely and dialled 999 after a burglar alarm went off.

Mrs Steinsberg said: “I was helping my youngest daughter to pack her bag for a school trip when she started shouting that she could see orange flares in the sky and I immediately got everyone out.

“All the bedrooms have gone, all our clothes and the children’s play room.

“The section of the house containing the main living space has gone and we will stay with friends or with my mother Cynthia Rogers, who also lives in Radley, until we are ready to move back in.

“The house is on the site of an old bakery and the parts of it that were in the fire dated back to the 15th and 17th centuries. We have lived here for 15 years.”

Mr Steinsberg, 54, an IT consultant, added: “The kids are all you worry about at the time. The rest is rebuildable.

“We are insured but we do not know yet how much the work will cost. We have not seen the loss adjuster yet.

“There were working smoke alarms in the house, but it was the burglar alarm that alerted us. It must have been sparked by the smoke.

“The firefighters got here very quickly and did a fantastic job to make sure the fire didn’t spread to other parts of the house.”

Incident commander Mike Bingham said firefighters from Abingdon were first to arrive, followed by crews from Oxford, Didcot, Wantage, Woodstock, Kidlington, Bicester, Eynsham and Wheatley.

Mr Bingham added: “Firefighters worked very quickly to create fire breaks to protect about two thirds of the property.

“The fire started accidentally and an investigation is ongoing, but the family lit an open fire about 40 minutes before they realised the roof was on fire and we will be concentrating on that as a possible cause.”