ARSONISTS torched a Morecambe home as a family slept upstairs.

Treasured possessions and memories were lost in the blaze which gutted two floors and severely smoke damaged the whole of the property on Balmoral Road but the Ellis family escaped unscathed.

Fire crews were called to the home in the early hours after it is believed firebugs entered the basement and started the inferno.

And on Wednesday dad of five Michael Ellis told the Citizen: 'It is sickening. We have not done anything to anyone and yet this has happened - it's dreadful and we are still shell-shocked. To say it has been very upsetting is an understatement. He says: Me, my wife Pamela and daughter Leanne were asleep and our son Adam came back home at about 2.30am. When he went up to bed he heard a noise downstairs and came back down and it was then he saw smoke and came running upstairs and woke us." Mr Ellis says panic set in as he got his family downstairs and out of the front door.

"There was a lot of smoke and as we were coming down the stairs the smoke alarm started - but once we got outside there was a lot more - it was just pouring out of the house," he adds.

Wife Pamela says all the familys possessions have been damaged by smoke.

She says: The basement was a play room, which had all the kids toys and colouring stuff in and the other side was a gym. We also stored old photographs and keepsakes in it. It has all been destroyed.

"It is lucky it did not happen the night before as all the kids were in and that would have been terrible." The family have had to move out of the property and are staying at a friends house.

Mrs Ellis says that since the incident family and friends have spent virtually every daylight hour clearing the house, creating mounds of charred debris in the garden.

Leading Firefighter Gerard Burke, from Morecambe, says three engines from Morecambe attended the scene.

He told the Citizen they were immediately met with a 'well-developed fire' which had broken through the ground floor.

Police are treating the fire as suspicious and are appealing for anyone who may have seen anything in the Balmoral area at around 3am on Sunday.

They are particularly keen to speak to a taxi driver who called the fire service.

Anyone with information should contact DC Michelle Stevens or Martin Ras at Lancaster police on 01524-596944 or Crimestoppers on 0800-555111.