Weather: Massive lightning strike captured on film as ferocious storms pound SEQ
The moment a house was struck by lightning before it caught fire during wild storms may have been caught on camera. SEE THE VIDEO
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The moment a house was struck by lightning before it caught fire may have been caught on camera.
More than 200,000 lightning strikes hit South East Queensland during wild storms on Wednesday night, with spectacular footage capturing the moment a massive bolt came down at Redcliffe.
SEE THE VIDEO IN THE MEDIA PLAYER ABOVE
Scarborough resident Russell Moore shot the incredible storm footage showing the lightning bolt strike what appears to be a structure.
Mr Moore confirmed his camera was pointing in the direction of Daniel Court, where firefighters battled to save a home that caught alight from a suspected lightning strike.
“The strike across from my place was also the one to shut down all of North Redcliffe electrical grid too,” Mr Moore said.
“That’s why after the lighting hit on my video, all of Redcliffe goes dark.
Mr Moore wasn't’ totally convinced he captured the Daniel Court lightning strike, however.
“My video was actually a lot closer,” he told The Courier-Mail.
“Which means there had to be a 2nd (sic) strike that hit Daniel Street, however I didn’t catch that one.”
Firefighters were sent to Daniel Court in Scarborough about 9pm after reports of a house fire.
A QFES spokeswoman said that crews entered from the roof and battled the blaze in the structure’s ceiling.
“(The fire) wasn’t obvious, no one could have seen it externally,” she said.
“The crew gained entry through the ceiling and quickly extinguished it.
“Energex were there to make the scene safe and we left.”
QFES confirmed there were people at home when it caught alight and that Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics attended the scene.
Paramedics treated one woman aged in her 50s for minor injuries, before taking her to Redcliffe Hospital for observation in a stable condition.
Meanwhile, at about 10pm, emergency services were called to reports of a vehicle in floodwaters at Kedron.
A police spokeswoman said there was one occupant in the vehicle on Edinburgh Castle Rd near Leckie Rd.
Another passing driver saw the car stuck in flood waters with the driver trapped inside and called triple-0.
Fire crews were able to rescue the uninjured driver, before conducting a search of the area with no further vehicles or people found.
“It (the rescue) was done as soon as we arrived, we left the scene within about ten minutes,” a QFES spokeswoman said.
“The water on the road subsided fairly quickly.”
At 10.20pm police said another car likely lost control in the rain and smashed into a power pole at Hawthorne.
The single-vehicle crash blocked the left lane on Wynnum Rd outbound at the intersection with Balmoral St.
A woman aged in her 20s was treated by paramedics but didn’t suffer any major injuries requiring hospital treatment.
The severe thunderstorm warning for the South East was cancelled about 10.15pm, but not before power was cut to about 16,000 homes, with more than 8000 outages regionally.
There were still more than 2500 outages as of 5am on Thursday, with 2173 of those in Kallangur, north of Brisbane.
Energex spokesman Danny Donald said the outages were sparked by more than 200,000 lightning strikes.
“We’ve got outages everywhere, all the way to the Rockhampton Regional Council area, where we have 5400,” he said.
It came after a hot and humid day throughout the region, with temperatures peaking at 38C in Gatton, 37C in Ipswich, 36C in Beaudesert and 33C in Brisbane.
The Bureau of Meteorology said there was a high chance of rain further developing on Thursday with the possibility of falls of up to 20mm for Brisbane as well as the possibility of severe thunderstorms returning.
BOM’s Danny Tecce-Johnson said those looking to escape the humidity should head to the coast, where light breezes are keeping areas cool.
There is little reprieve expected for the rest of the week with temperatures forecast to remain in the high 20s and low 30s, although a cool change is expected to move through on Friday, bringing temperatures and humidity down next week.
Originally published as Weather: Massive lightning strike captured on film as ferocious storms pound SEQ
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