'The loudest crash I ever heard' : Flitwick home set ablaze by lightning strike
By Bedfordshire On Sunday | Posted:
June 13, 2016
By Stephen Penn
Burt Battams in his home after the lightning strike
Burt Battams in his home after the lightning strike
Comments (0)
A COUPLE were left shaken last night after a
bolt of lightning stuck their home and ripped the fireplace off their sitting room wall.
Last night,
thunderstorms hit the county and a number of homes in one Flitwick street suffered serious damage after a huge bolt of lightning struck (see the video below).
Elvira and Burt Battams, from The Ridgeway, Flitwick, were spending a Sunday evening at home when the
freak storm struck.
Elvira said: "I was just in the living room and Burt was upstairs when I heard the loudest crash I have ever heard.
"I didn't know what had happened but the decorative fireplace had burst off the wall, and a huge hole appeared in the chimney wall.
"The
chair next to the wall caught fire, the lamp blew out, our electric cut out and the whole house shook. I was absolutely stunned."
Read more: Man hit by lightning in Flitwick and Center Parcs flooded as more thunderstorms hit Bedfordshire
Her husband Burt raced downstairs and tried to get into the lounge, but due to the strength of the hit the door had actually jammed shut.
He told BoS; "I had to kick the door open and I saw Elvira standing there shocked, and the room was filled with smoke.
"I told her to get outside and I got the chair out into the garden and opened all of the windows."
It appears that the lightning had struck down the chimney of their home, but this took a while for the pair to realise.
Elvira said; "I couldn't work out what had happened. I thought something had hit our house, like a vehicle or something. I never expected that lightning could do this."
The strike was caught on camera by Ampthill business owner Luan Hall. See the crash below. Make sure you turn your volume on. The crash occurs at around 52 seconds.
Other homes in the street suffered blackouts and blackened plug sockets after the deafening blast.
One neighbour, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "I have never heard anything like it, it was so loud.
She said: "We thought something had struck out house but we went out to check and everything seemed fine.
"I cannot believe this happened and the street was manic for the rest of the evening. It was really scary."
As of this morning Burt and Elvira were waiting for an electrician and to find out what would happened with their home repairs, but the pair remained in good spirits.
Elvira said:
"My ears are still ringing and I am still in shock but we feel lucky that nothing worse happened."
Burt added: "At least there was no loss of life or injury, so a bit of a fire and some charred walls are not that bad on the whole.
"Now we just have to wait to get it all fixed up, but on the whole it was quite the experience."
Two further warnings of rain have been issued by the Met Office today.
Video: 52 seconds in
https://www.facebook.com/simplyluan/videos/10153456268336106/