STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2472, 26 August 1922, Page 4

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

HOUSE IN TARANAKI. INCIDENT DURING SUNDAY’S GALE. About four o’clock on Sunday afternoon Mr S. Guscott’s residence m Gletinvon was .struck by lightning (slates tile Taranaki Herald). The same flash struck in four separate spots, but fortunately none of the inmates was injured. The house was filled with blue smoke and the report heard some distance away. A double-chimney suffered most damage, the portion projecting from tho roof being completely shattered, bricks being burled 30 yards away. The interior presented a sorry spectacle. The mantelpiece was wrenched entirely from the wall and thrown into the centre of the room, whilst the iron grate, was smashed into several pieces. Continuing its career, the lightning split one of the cover hoards on a Icari-lo at the rear, stove in a vent-pipe, and diving to earth sent, up a shower of mud which lies bespattered on the walls of the house. A stout wire extending across tho yard was severed as t hough by a machine and one portion, about six feet in length, cannot lie found. A concrete water tank also received attention, the iron roof being lifted, whilst at the spot where the outlet pipe pierces the concrete the flash has burrowed in about three inches and has left a burnt mark upon the pipe.