HOUSE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 12 June 1939, Page 8

HOUSE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

OCCUPANTS NARROW ESCAPE ROOF AM) WALLS DAMAGED lUnited Pie** Association] AUCKLAND. 11th June Lightning struc k and damaged exten- j sively a two-storied house, the home of Mrs E. Newcombe, 27 Norwood road, Bays water, at 4.45 p.m. to-day. The occupants of the house wer severely shaken but not hurt, and though the house was damaged there was no fire. Striking a corner of the house the lightning tore away about 50 tiles. It apparently travelled to the ground between the outside wall and the lining, leaving a trail of damage and blowing a hole in the dining-room downstairs. Mrs K. Fowler, a sister of Mrs New. combe, was only two yards agay from the hole in the wall, which measured about two feet square. “There was a tremendous explosion, and I was almost knocked over,” Mrs Fowler said. ‘Pictures and plaster seined to be everywhere. I had just disconnected the radio, or it would probably have been severely damaged as well.” Upstairs were Mrs Newcombe and her son, Mr K. Newcombe. Mr Newcombe said he saw what appeared to be a shadow crossing the room before an explo-' sion occurred. He was almost knocked down. Mrs Newcombe had a narrow escape from injury. Immediately below where the lightnilng struck the roof are the windows of her bedroom. These were shattered, and glass scattered over the bed on which Mrs Newcombe had been resting only a few minutes before. Though it struck in only one place the lightning did widespread damage to the house. Apart from the tiles knocked from the roof and the hole in the wall of the dining-room it broke windows, splintered picture rails, dislodged plaster from the walls 111 several rooms, and knocked pictures to the floor. The elec, trical fuse-box was extensively damaged. Running along the water pipes throughout the house the lightning burst them at several points, leaving scorches on the walls at these places. As a result there was water everywhere and the occupants of the house, as soon as they had recovered from the shock, collected buckets and basins, which were set in rooms downstairs to catch the water pouring from above. A large tree growing in the garden near the corner of the roof that was struck also took a share in the impact. On one side it was stripped clean of branches and bark for 20 feet.

Lightning also struck power and telephone lines in the Belmont district this afternoon and services wer dislocated for an hour. Country districts also sufTRANSFORMERS OUT OF ACTION AUCKLAND, This Day. “More than 1200 square miles of country in the board’s district were affected by the storm,” said Mr A. Main, general manager of the Waitemata Power Board to-day. He said a number of transformers were thrown out of action, more than treble in any previous disturbance of a similar nature. To-day’s reports shows that storm violence was chiefly felt in the middle portions of the North Auckland peninsula. There was no major damage to power board property, and the services were rapidly restored.