Aberglasslyn home catches fire after lightning strike

Then, as he looked across his living room, he could see fire “dripping” from the ceiling of his Aberglasslyn home.

Emergency crews were called to the Nardoo Avenue residence just before 5.30pm on Sunday, after lightning struck the roof of a house and sparked a fire in the ceiling.

Mr Dow was sitting only a few metres from the spot below the impact of the lightning strike, which sliced through the roof.

“I was sitting watching tele and the next thing, there was a massive bang,” he said.

“The tele went black, so I went out and turned the circuit board back on and everything came back on at that stage.

“It was probably about 15 or 20 minutes later that I went to put some rubbish in the bin and I could smell smoke.

“When I came back in, I looked at the air conditioning duct and it was actually dripping fire from the roof to the table.”

Firefighters put out the blaze before it spread to the rest of the house, but Mr Dow said they had told him the fire was only minutes from taking hold and spreading rapidly to the rest of the building.

“The firies got here and they found hot spots and pulled the ceiling down to get in there,” Mr Dow said.

“We were standing out the front and all you could see was a little light, the house was that full of smoke.”

A NSW State Emergency Service spokesman said house fires started by lightning strikes were rare in the Hunter.