STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1935, Page 9

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

CHIMNEY OF NGAIO HOUSE FIRE SCATTERED ROUND ROOM. WOMEN’S TERRIFYING SITUATION. SEVERITY OF ELECTRICAL STORM. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Aug. 17. A terrifying experience occurred to a family at Ngaio, their house in Heke Street being struck by lightning at 8.22 p.m. on Friday. The flash struck a double chimney serving the sitting room and kitchen. Bricks and pieces of the chimney pot were scattered all over the section and bricks fell down the chimney, scattering soot and a live fire in the grate around the room. Fortunately no one was injured. The owner of the house, Mr. H. L. Ryan, of the telephone branch of the P. and T. Department, was not at home, but round the fire were four women, Mrs. A. Cameron, Miss Ryan (sisters of Mr. Ryan), Miss B. Cameron and a visitor and two children. They were uneasy during the storm; then came a deafening noise, darkness and pandemonium.

After putting the fire out they lost no time in getting outside, where an investigation showed what had happened. It was an electric storm of unusual severity that visited Wellington. Heavy rain accompanied by a strong north-east wind set in early in the afternoon and about 5.30 p.m. vivid lightning appeared in the south and west and continued at intervals for several hours. Thunder at that stage could not be heard. The rain, however, was particularly heavy on occasions.

At 8.30 a hailstorm • commenced with remarkable suddenness, and during the few minutes it lasted drifts piled up in corners and at ■ one • place ■ blocked a 'storm water drain. Some of the stones were very large, and at Karori and Northland and nearby, where the storm was particularly severe, jagged lumps of ice, many threequarters of an inch square, fell. Some of the hailstones themselves were as big as marbles and fell with such force that many people feared that windows would be broken.

Many motor-cars had to remain pulled up and Friday night shoppers were terrified. Vivid lightning and rolling thunder continued, the storm appearing to be circling Wellington and Hutt Valley. It eased after 10 o’clock, but at 1.15 a.m. a vivid flash and an unusually heavy clap of thunder shook houses and awakened" most people in the Wellington area and heavy rain again fell. The north-west gale ~ . persisted, but gradually changed to the south. Gusts up to 50 miles an hour were registered, A washout took place at Kelbum off Upland Road and a number of slips were reported in various places.