A FAMILY-of-four suffered severe burns after a horrific gas explosion which prompted fire crews to evacuate a street.

The couple and their two young boys escaped into the garden after the blast blew open the back doors of their house in Standen Road, Clitheroe, at around 9.30am yesterday.

Neighbours described the gruesome scene as the family stood in the garden dazed and screaming, with their pyjamas smouldering and their skin burned.

They said John Marsden's shoes had been burned off his feet and footprints of blood were left outside the house.

He was airlifted to the Royal Preston Hospital and was in a serious condition today, while wife, Lynn, and sons Steven and Andrew, thought to be aged six and nine, were transported by ambulance.

Their condition was stable. Each suffered 25 to 40 per cent burns and they were treated in the burns unit at the hospital.

Neighbours from seven other houses were evacuated for an hour while firefighters and officers from gas company Transco made sure there was no risk of further explosions.

And they said the investigation into cause may take weeks as the family have to be interviewed.

Ribble Valley Borough Council building inspectors said the Marsden's private home was now uninhabitable because the explosion lifted the roof several inches and had made the house dangerous.

Derek Turner was working in his garden several houses up from the Marsden's when he heard the explosion.

"I thought it might have been a road accident," he said, "I ran down because heard screaming and then I saw the smoke.

"I went down their path and opened the back gate. Each member of the family was in the garden, their clothes were smouldering and hanging off them. You could still smell the gas.

"The man had his shoes blown off his feet. All his skin was hanging off and there were big holes in his clothes. The kids were screaming.

"The family was in a daze and we got them to the front, and the fire brigade just arrived.

"The mother asked me 'how is my face?' It was like something out of a horror film. There was bits of everything blown out of the house.

"I felt helpless really."

Pietrzak Zdzislaw lives in the adjoining semi to the Marsden's.

He said: "I ran to the back door and I saw them outside and they looked bad.

"They were screaming. When I opened the door the father came across to me to ask me to phone for an ambulance. As he walked he left footprints of blood."

Next-door neighbour John Raeside said: "I was in bed and heard my back windows rattle and then bang loudly. I heard screaming and there was smoke coming out of the house and I saw the father with his shoes blown off his feet."

Station Commander Kevin Murray aid that together with Transco and the police they were still investigating the cause of the gas explosion.

He added: "The blast inside the premises blew the back doors open. The doors are still in the lock position. This is where they escaped, as far as we can tell.

"There has been a building up of gas in the ground floor and that has ignited.

"There was a fire in the kitchen area of the house, and it just looks like a 'normal' fire, and it doesn't tell the full story of what happened.

"It's sad because they seem a very house proud family. They have two smoke alarms and a fire extinguisher."

Neil Howarth, of the Air Ambulance crew, said they had to land the helicopter on a nearby playing field because there was nowhere suitable on the road.

He said: "We got the call at 9.40am and it took us ten minutes to get there."