A HOTEL damaged by fire after being struck by lightning is to rise from the ashes.

The Holiday Inn Fareham, in Cartwright Drive, has been shut since June. Many of the 70 staff were either moved to other hotels or lost their jobs.

Now a major refurbishment project is nearing completion and the chain has started recruiting and training staff for the reopening in September.

The 124-room, four-star hotel was struck during a violent electrical storm on June 24. The bolt hit the timber roof frame and 30 people, many in swimwear, had to flee.

On the same day a woman was struck by a bolt of electricity in Sarisbury and 2,800 homes around Alresford were left without electricity.