Lucky escape for family after lightning strike
While the lightning show during the fierce Sydney storms was a spectacular sight for most, one family were lucky to escape with their life after a bolt struck their house, engulfing it in flames.
Flames exploded from the top floor of a home on Jananmba Avenue in Kellyville, with four young children inside.
The fire took hold around 9PM when a lightning bolt struck the ariel, sending electricity surging through the house and igniting the blaze.
Ten year-old Joshua Watkins was trying to sleep upstairs with his brother and two younger sisters.
"It was the biggest bang, the lights went out and everyone started screaming," he said.
Mum Melissa Watkins was downstairs having a coffee when the fire started.
"The roof had actually come in with the explosion," she said today, as she sifted through the damage.
"One of my sons felt like he was trapped in his room."
Husband Craig was also involved in his own drama: a paramedic, he was helping a shooting victim at Guildford at the time and helpless to save his owned loved ones.
He is just grateful everyone escaped unharmed.
"I can only imagine how that call must feel for him to be out at a job and not here with us," Melissa added.
Remarkably, this is the second time a house on the street has been struck by lightning in just over 12 months.
Meanwhile, two other homes caught fire after being struck last night, including one at Guildford just before midnight and one at Normanhurst.
Pam Johnstone was having a cup of tea with her son when her Normanhurst home was struck and described it 'as like a bomb going off'.
Lights and windows throughout the house blew out and the gas pipe caught fire before a quick-thinking neighbor used a garden hose to prevent it spreading.
Nanette McDonald alson had a lucky escape. She was asleep when a tree crashed through a fence onto the roof of her Greystanes home.
"I was so scared I was crying, I don't know what to do," she recalled.
