People of a Herefordshire town have shown their support for families whose homes were destroyed by fire.

Plumes of black smoke were seen over Leominster as firefighters from the town and nine other stations were called to Buckfield Road in Leominster.

An eyewitness, who didn’t want to be named, told the Hereford Times how quickly the fire took hold.

They said: “We were just about to go out and saw someone running down the road shouting for help. We could see smoke coming from one of the houses at that time, and a crowd had already gathered outside.

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"Within 10 minutes it had engulfed the houses and was devastating. Thankfully, everyone got out ok."

Another resident who saw the fire said: "Minutes after the fire started the houses were gutted, it was really distressing for everyone.

"Obviously, you see these things happen everywhere, but you never expect it to happen on your road."

Adam and Vicky Belton, whose sister-in-law lost everything in the fire on Friday (July 8), have started a GoFundMe page for donations to help her and her three children which has raised nearly £3,000 at time of writing.

Jan Lockett, who runs local Facebook group Leominster Info, said: "It’s totally devastating for the families.

"It’s the things that you can’t replace, the family photos and heirlooms that you can never bring back.

"As soon as we heard about the fundraising going on to help the families, we did our best to share it as wide as we could.

"The great thing about the town is that when these things happen, the people are really quick to rally round and help whenever they can."

Morrisons in Leominster started a donations trolley for people to contribute any clothes that people had for the families that had lost everything.

A spokesperson for the supermarket said: "When we heard about the fire and what those poor people had gone through, our community champion helped to arrange the donation point.

"People have been incredibly generous, and we manage to collect a huge amount of clothing for the families."