HURLED FROM A BATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18949, 21 February 1925, Page 10

HURLED FROM A BATH.

LIGHTNING STRIKES HOUSE. A STARTLING EXPERIENCE. NARROW ESCAPE FROM DEATH. During an extraordinarily severe thunderstorm in Palmers ton North on Monday evening a man sat in a bath at a residence in Napier Bond, when his ablutior.s were interrupted by a blinding flash at the foot of the bath. Simultaneously he was lifted completely from the wafer on an aerial pilgrimage only to bo unsympathellea Ily reminded of material things by the back of his head striking the end of the porcelain vessel. He was dazed bv the rapid rise and fall, and frightened, but when an extraordinary vicious clap of thunder, which invariably follows a flash of lightning, burst almost over the house, his last spark of courage vanished as smoke in a gale. Scrambling from the bath he decided that " back to Nature" was good enough for him. So, clad in nothing, iie tied terror-stricken through the house, determined to place the greatest possible distance between the scene of interrupted ablutions and himself. His; success in this direction was proudly related by himself, but he has decided when lie requires electrical treatment together with a bath that he will visit a specialist instead of entering the water during a storm and relying upon the elements to provide the currunt. During an exceptionally vivid flash of lightning some of the residents in the vicinity claim that, a phenomenon resembling a ball of fire struck two trees in the property, splitting one and stripping the other of its bark. A steel clothes line attracted electricity, which was conveyed thence to the verandah of a house. The current connected there with telephone wires and the wood round the spot at which the clothes line touched the house was scorched, as also were the boards along the route of the telephone lines. The telephone was immediately thrown out of order. In its search for a connection to earth the lightning danced down a water pipe, thence to the pipe at the end of the bath. • The man whose ablutions were so unceremoniously disturbed was a visitor to the house, but in the excitement and terror of the moment, all else but the explosion was forgotten. An examination of the premises indicates that the resident was fortunate in not having the place ignited by a passage, of lightning, white the guest in the bath was equally fortunate that he was not electrocuted. Other residents in the vicinity have complained of the severity of the storm and declare that the lightning affected their telephones, at the same time causing much alarm in the locality.