A WHITEFIELD family woke up in the middle of the night to find a huge tree buried in the roof and front bedroom of their house.

The Brammer family, of Carisbrooke Avenue, miraculously escaped injury when the 70-year-old tree was uprooted in 80mph winds in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The tree, which was situated on the pavement outside, crashed down on their semi-detached home, destroying everything in its path, and causing damage estimated at £20,000.

Fortunately, 24-year-old Stephen Brammer, who would normally have been sleeping in the wrecked bedroom, was away for the night.

Father Tom said: "I was awoken at 3.45am on Saturday by what sounded like the porch door slamming. I'm a heavy sleeper but it must have been the tree cracking and I went to have a look."

Mr Brammer, who sleeps at the rear of the house, tried to get into his son's bedroom but the force of the wind initially held him back.

When he eventually pushed open the door he was faced with a scene of devastation.

The 54-year-old said: "There was a gaping hole in the wall and a load of rubble at the bottom of Stephen's bed. My other son, Paul (16) was in the bedroom next door and when he heard a noise he looked out of the window to see the tree coming towards the window. We were all a bit shaken up and shocked but the main thing is that no one was hurt."

Mr Brammer, a bus driver, contacted the emergency services and although a fire crew from Blackley attended they were unable to lift the tree away from the house.

The family spent the next night at a neighbour's house and embarked on a major clean-up operation over the weekend.

The tree also knocked over a lamp post and burst a water main when it was uprooted.

Mr Brammer added: "The builders have been brilliant but we had to hire a special crane and have lost a lot of personal possessions.

"We will also have to have a completely new roof, so with everything taken into account it will cost £20,000 easy."

Mr Brammer was not the only resident of Carisbrooke Avenue to suffer damage in the storm.

Several houses had lost roof tiles and heavy ridge tiles which had flown off roofs in the wind like bits of paper.

Mr Brammer said: "This road was devastated on Saturday. But Im quite philisophical about it. I was upset at first but when I saw the television footage of Carlisle it put things into perspective because there wasnt a scratch on us."

In the midst of the trauma on Saturday morning, the Brammer's suffered another setback.

After evacuating his wife and son from the house, Mr Brammer decided to move his car from the driveway in case the tree fell onto it.

He parked it on the road, supposedly out of the way of harm, but it was clipped by the fire engine as it turned into the avenue.'