Lightning blasts hole in family roof (From Stroud News and Journal)

Lightning blasts hole in family roof

LIGHTNING struck a house in Stonehouse on Saturday leaving a family without electricity or heating.

The powerful bolt left a hole the size of a football in the roof of the house in Canberra and scattered rubble across the front garden when it hit at around 2pm.

Hilary Jones was downstairs when the blast hit, shorting out TVs and electrical equipment and terrifying her young son Liam, 10.

"It was just like a bomb going off," said Mrs Jones, who lives in the house with her son, husband Alan and daughter Laila, 16. "Everything just went boom.

"I just thought the lightning had taken the power off and went to the window to see if everybody else was the same - but they were all looking up at the house.

"The whole house smelt of smoke, like burning rubber. There was rubble all over the path and the patio."

A small crowd formed as firefighters were called to check the damage and found the joist at the corner of the roof had been blasted apart after bearing the brunt of the strike.

The power surge left televisions and the family computer ruined.

Mrs Jones said it was particularly unfortunate that Laila, a pupil at Maidenhill School had no computer to revise for her GCSE exams, which started on Monday.

"That is the worst thing about it," she said.

"But I do feel lucky as it could have been a lot worse. The fire brigade said we were lucky the whole house didn't go up."

Some nearby residents said the brief storm on Saturday was the worst they had experienced. Mabel Crocker, 87, heard the lightning strike.

"It was ghastly - there was this terrible bang overhead. There were hailstones as big as thumbnails.

"The whole ground was covered in them - I thought they were going to knock the glass in."

Fellow resident Elizabeth Wilkins added: "It was definitely the worst hailstorm we remember.

"It sounded like someone was throwing stones at our windows and doors."