A grandmother has spoken of her never-ending pain on the week that two of her granddaughters should have celebrated their 18th and 21st birthdays.

Sayrah and Sophia Riaz and their two sisters Alicia and Hannah died when their father started a fire at their family home in 2006, because he was unable to accept their westernised ways.

Their mother Caneze Riaz also perished in the blaze. This week ahead of the fifth anniversary the tragedy, their grandmother June Khanan said the occasion would be especially hard as it fell just weeks before Sayrah and Sophia would have been celebrating landmark birthdays.

June said: "Sayrah would have turned 21 on Monday, September 26 and Sophia would have been 18 on Thursday, September 29.

"This should be a happy time, but it isn't and never will be.

"The pain doesn't get any easier, and birthdays and anniversaries make it worst.

"I have lost all the closest things I will ever have. Every time I talk about it it's like a knife going through me."

Father Mohammed Riaz poured petrol around their home in Tremellen Street, Accrington, and lit it with matches while his family slept on November 1, 2006.

Riaz later died of his own injuries caused by the blaze.

The tragedy was made even worse when, just six weeks after Caneze and her daughters were buried, her son Adam, 17, lost his battle with an aggressive form of cancer.

June, 64, said the pain of dealing losing six family members – Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 13, Alicia, 10, Hannah, three, Ceneze, 39, as well as Adam, never eases.

She has since moved away from Accrington, saying she could not bear live on the doorstep of the tragedy, and now lives near her only surviving son Barry in Bolton.

She said: "I could never ever forgive the person who did this to our loved ones and neither could Barry.

"Mohammed Riaz was a quiet man and someone I got on reasonably well with.

"But it turned into our worst nightmare. We got closure in that we knew he did it but I still get a lot of anger.

"We never got to grieve for Caneze and the grandchildren like we should because we focused on Adam straight after when he was ill with cancer.

"I have been to counsellor after counsellor to try and help but nothing works. It will always be there at the end of the day no matter what."

However, June said that some light has been brought into her life by the birth of her grandchild Sasha.

She added: "The light we have in life at the moment is Barry's daughter Sascha whose name comes from the initials of all our family members who died.

"She has made me a nan again and will turn three on November 2, a day after the fifth anniversary. She has given us purpose.

"I visit Accrington once or twice a week to clean all their headstones which gives me comfort and makes me a bit calmer. It's like keeping their homes clean.

"I'll do that on November 1 for the fifth anniversary and just lay some flowers down and have half an hour with them."