Lightning strike hitting house sounded ‘like a bomb’

A couple say a lightning strike hitting their house “sounded like a bomb going off”.

Emma and Tim Brennan were woken by the noise at about 02.30 BST on Thursday, when a storm passed over their Gloucestershire home.

The strike splintered several roof beams and knocked out the house’s electrics, but did not start a fire. The dramatic incident was caught on a neighbour’s door bell cam.

Mr Brennan joked: “We could be standing here today and the house not be here, so I’m definitely buying a lottery ticket tonight.”

Mrs Brennan said the couple initially did not know what had happened when the noise woke them up at their home near Upton St Leonards.

“We had a look outside and were going to go back to bed but when we went to put the fan on and realised we didn’t have any electricity, we thought we better have a look around the house.

“We realised the door bell cam had blown off the wall and there was a burning smell,” she said.

When the couple opened their loft hatch, they were greeted by a hail of splinters from the roof beams, at which point they decided they needed to call the fire service.

“They were here as quick as a flash,” Mr Brennan said.

He said one of the firefighters told him he had never seen wood beams be so damaged and yet not catch alight.

“He said we’d been very lucky and it could have been a hell of a lot worse,” Mr Brennan said.

He thanked the fire service, adding: “They were really thorough and made sure everything was safe before they left.”

The couple are still without some of their electrics, and are having their roof inspected on Wednesday.