AS mother-of-two Susan Botterill served up a curry at her York home, something far hotter was hurtling towards the house intent on devastation.

Susan watched in horror through her kitchen window as a ball of flame came screaming out of the night sky and scored a direct hit on the garden shed.

A blaze quickly took hold among the paint and creosote tins kept in the shed and left behind a charred trail of destruction.

The fire, thought to have been sparked by a stray firework, destroyed the shed, which contained the family's bicycles and other items, wrecked two wooden fences and melted and cracked three windows and the back door. Susan called in firefighters and she, husband Paul, son Lee, 12, nephew Michael, and family dog, Monty fled the house in Hamilton Drive East.

She said: "It was just unbelievable. This ball of flame shot out of the sky and went straight into the shed. I don't know what sort of firework it was or where it came from, but it must have been big. It just seems to have been a horrible accident."

She hopes her misfortune will help to remind people how dangerous fireworks can be.