AAP

Lucky escape as lightning hits home

By David Barbeler, AAP November 6, 2009, 8:48 am

Lightning from raging storms in Queensland's southeast has struck a family home, igniting a fire, collapsing its roof and injuring those inside.

Up to 25,000 homes across southeast Queensland suffered power outages from the Thursday evening storms with the Lockyer Valley and Ipswich regions the worst affected.

Hail seven centimetres in diameter was reported northeast of Warwick while golf ball-sized hail was sighted in Allora.

A Department of Community Safety (DCS) spokeswoman said the Ashmore house was struck by lightning just before 11pm (AEST).

The Queensland Fire and Rescue Service, ambulance officers and State Emergency Services (SES) attended the scene.

The DCS spokeswoman said the lightning collapsed a section of the roof and started a small fire when the electricity box imploded.

But the fire quickly died out, she said.

The family were treated on site by paramedics for grazes from shattering glass before spending the night at a neighbour's place.

The DCS spokeswoman said the SES responded to a total of 66 storm-related jobs, mostly in the Ipswich, Laidley and Allora areas.

"Most of those were minor storm damage," she said.

"However, there was a fair bit of hail and at Allora we had a nursing home that had a lot of skylights, every one of which was damaged."

An Energex spokeswoman said there were power outages in up to 25,000 homes on Thursday night.

She said of those, only 50 homes in Mt Crosby and 100 homes in the Lockyer Valley region remained without power on Friday morning.

She said Energex crews would remain on standby as there were more storms expected in coming days.

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