House hit by lightning as storm erupts

Firefighters were called to the three-storey house in Highdown Close on the Bramley Green estate at 6.40am and arrived to find a third of its roof missing. The occupiers were out at the time.

East Preston fire commander Jon Mays said: "The lightning had caused a large hole in the roof and blown the electrics to the house and the others in the terrace.

"The shockwave has gone through the building and cracked the ceilings and blown the plug sockets out of the walls.

Any fire was out on arrival and we were lucky it had extinguished itself. There was water flooding into the property."

Claire Webley, whose parents own the house said: "We've been told the ceiling might cave in at any minute so we've been wearing hard hats up there just in case.

"The plug sockets are all blown off the walls and black and charred. The loft cover was also blown off and there's a lot of water in the house. The carpets are ruined.

"It's lucky mum and dad were out at the time as their bedroom was the one struck and they could have been hurt or worse."

Firefighters were called to two houses that had had their electricity blown by a power surge caused by the storm.

A man who also lives in Highdown Close said his television had exploded and a woman in Older Way thought her television was on fire but it had just short-circuited.

The freak weather is also thought to have caused problems with the railway crossing at East Preston yesterday morning.