Sydney lightning storm shuts down Jack Johnson concert, delays fire effort

A lightning storm that hit Sydney overnight forced fire fighters to pause their efforts to extinguish a blaze on the lower North Shore. It also saw Jack Johnson’s Opera House concert cancelled.

The storm provided a light show for Sydneysiders on Monday night. Picture: Reddit

Firefighters had to pause operations while attending a major fire at a waste facility on the lower north shore, after a lightning storm hit Sydney on Monday night.

More than 20 Fire and Rescue NSW trucks were called to contain the warehouse blaze at Lanceley Place in Artarmon at 3.30pm..

Due to the lightning, use of the cherry-picker style fire trucks had to be paused until it was safe to continue.

Firefighters continued to fight the blaze on Tuesday morning.

Fire and Rescue also saw a spike in storm related callouts as the lightning rolled in.

“During that time we got more calls about storm wires down, trees down and automatic fire alarms going off,” a Fire and Rescue spokesman said.

Firefighters battling a blaze in Artarmon on Monday were forced to pause operations when the lighning storm rolled across Sydney. Picture: Fire and Rescue NSW

LIGHTNING STORM SHUTS DOWN OPERA HOUSE GIG

US singer Jack Johnson’s concert was called off by police at the Opera House Forecourt when a lightning storm hit Sydney on Monday night.

Johnson had only been playing for about 50 minutes before officers evacuated thousands from the harbour venue when the storm struck the city about 8:30pm.

“This is really hard for me to say, but the police are shutting us down,” Johnson told his fans.

He is due to play another two shows on Tuesday and Wednesday at the same venue.

Fans forked out up to $300 to see him live.

Mother Nature and the man the myth @jackjohnson ⚡️⚡️⚡️ pic.twitter.com/joZulwIVzR

— Tara (@Toasty_27) December 5, 2022

Johnson is on tour after releasing his eighth studio album, Meet the Moonlight, in July this year.

The Taylor singer was last in Australia for Bluesfest in 2019.

American singer songwriter and surfer Jack Johnson. Picture: Supplied

Sydneysiders snapped spectacular photos of the storm. Picture: Facebook

Concertgoers were evacuated from the forecourt by police. Picture: Facebook

He told The Daily Telegraph the Covid pandemic had influenced his songwriting when his latest album was released.

“The last couple of years definitely fed into the songs, a lot of my observations and conversations about seeing the connection between people and coming together to support each other through really hard times and seeing the beautiful side of it,” he said.

“And then the uglier, kind of divisive side, seeing old friendships (end), people going in separate ways over something (because of) just the lack of being able to communicate in a successful way.”