House Hit By Lightning For Second Time in Year

Northern Advocate, 16 August 1947, Page 4

House Hit By Lightning For Second Time in Year

(Special) KAIKOHE, This Day. DEFYING the old axiom that lightning never strikes twice in the same spot, Mr Rangi Sadler’s home at Tautoro was hit in yesterday morning’s violent electi’ical storm for the second time this year. _ . It was a narrow escape for the house and its 10 occupants.

At the height of the storm, with a terrific crash, a flash struck the aerial on an outhouse, followed the wire to a tree-top in the garden and followed it to the wall of the house. It blazed a hole a yard wide and a loot deep through the wall, hurling charred wood across a room, where Mr and Mrs Sadler and their six children, aged from one to 11 years, were sleeping. In an adjoining room were an old lady and another member of the ilyFIERCE ARC ACROSS BEDROOM The flash streamed across the room in a huge blue arc, crossing some of the beds. It completely destroyed a radio and charred the cabinet, smashed a switchboard into amazingly small pieces, and charred a part of the opposite wall. Pieces of burnt wood and broken fused lumps of metal were scattered across the beds and floor. The meter on the switchboard was virtually melted into a solid mass. Heavy rain was falling at the time, aiui ihe family declare that this alone prevented the outside wall from catching fire. The day before Mr Sadler’s bed was moved from a position in direct line with the electrical flash to another wall. io this he attributes his escape from death. GROUND PLOUGHED UP Evidence oi tiie path the lightning followed and of its freakish power is afforded in the fact that the aerial has completely vanished, and along its general line the ground has been ploughed up in great lumps of grass and earth. This line is not: continuous, but gives the impression that it eruplc-d in a dozen spots at irregular intervals.

The storm had wakened the family before the flash struck the house, with the result that the adults and children alike saw the fierce arc of flame crash through the room. Fear caused immediate excitement, but Mr Sadler restored order and soon found there was no further danger from fire or collapse.