We saw lightning ...then neighbour knocked and said: Your roof ’s on f ire
Family’s home wrecked as freak storms bring 3,000 strikes
A TERRIFIED family were forced to flee last night after lightning set their home on fire.
Frank Malcolm, his wife Linda and two young sons escaped uninjured from the blaze at their home in Lenzie, Dunbartonshire.
But the roof and upper floor of the five-bedroom villa they had lived in for only seven months were destroyed as a summer storm sparked 3,000 lightning strikes, flooding and giant hailstones that brought a motorway to a halt.
Last night, Mr Malcolm said the family had not realised the danger they were in – until a neighbour knocked on the door and said their roof was on fire.
He added: ‘There had been thunder and lightning beforehand but we just thought it would pass over. The TV was on and I heard crackling, then the electricity tripped. That’s when I saw smoke in the back garden but I had no idea what was happening on the roof.
‘There was a knock and a neighbour said: “You better get out. Your roof’s on fire.” We just ran.’
He was horrified to see flames burst from the roof of his villa, worth around £300,000.
Close to tears, Mr Malcolm, whose job as a surveyor involves assessing fire-damaged buildings, added: ‘The extent of the fire – and the water damage from putting out the blaze – means the house is uninhabitable. We’ll try to salvage what we can but we’ve lost a lot. It’s devastating.’
The lightning which caused the inferno was just one of 3,000 strikes to hit Scotland, Northern Ireland and Cumbria last night as the early summer heatwave broke down spectacularly.
Scottish Fire and Rescue said it received a call around 5.45pm about the house on fire in Corn Mill Road in Lenzie. Three appliances attended and firefighters extinguished the blaze.
The Met Office had posted a yellow ‘be aware’ storm warning for large swathes of Scotland beginning at noon yesterday and extending to 9pm last night.
Forecasters predicted a ‘hit-andmiss’ type of storm, saying while some areas might encounter heavy rain, thunder, lighting and hail, other parts nearby might escape the storm conditions completely.
Last night, Traffic Scotland used its Twitter feed to warn drivers of atrocious conditions in many locations. In the late afternoon, traffic was brought to a standstill on a motorway by a giant hail storm. Motorists posted videos of the M9 carpeted in white near Dunblane, Perthshire. The A9 was flooded between Greenloaning and Blackford, near Braco, Perthshire.
Elsewhere, flooding shut the A77 in both directions in Ayrshire between the Holmston roundabout and the Bankfield roundabout. Drivers encountered dreadful conditions in Dumfriesshire, particularly on the main M74 link to England.
Fifteen flood alerts were imposed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, from Aberdeenshire to the Borders. Shoppers in Glasgow city centre ran for cover as torrential rain began to fall just before 5pm.
The downpour affected thousands heading to Hampden Park for the evening concert by Beyoncé and Jay Z. The audience at the city’s King’s Theatre was evacuated after the fire alarm went off during a show by Cirque Berserk.
After showers on high ground today, the new week will turn cooler tomorrow before wet and windy weather sweeps in from the Atlantic by Wednesday.
‘We’ve lost a lot. It’s devastating’