Torquay family survives lightning bolt inside house

A Queensland family has revealed the ‘explosive’ moment lightning struck then entered their home, describing it like a ‘lit up rope’ as it hit the floor. WATCH THE VIDEO

A Fraser Coast family had a freak encounter with lightning on Monday afternoon when it entered their home, looking like a “like a lit up rope”.

A severe storm hit the region on Monday afternoon, uprooting trees, smashing solar panels and pounding parts of the area with massive hailstones.

Torquay mother and daughter Shirley and Kendra Jones were left shaken but unhurt after the terrifying incident about 2pm.

It had been a typical Monday afternoon for the duo when “an explosion-like crack of sound” ripped through their home in Patridge Terrace.

Shirley was upstairs in the front walkway while Kendra was downstairs with her pet bird Chuckles.

The aftermath of the wild storm that hit Maryborough and Hervey Bay on December 4, 2023.

“I honestly thought a plane had crashed and exploded on the roof,” Kendra said when describing the almighty noise.

“Sparks fell from the roof on to the ground; I ran upstairs fully expecting the roof to be alight.

“There was no time to react after it occurred.

“All I knew was that I was alive.”

Shirley was standing in front of the lightning bolt when it entered the house.

“It freaked us out man! We’re still shaking. Mum said she actually saw it on the floor like a lit up rope,” Kendra said on social media.

Having just arrived back home from a shopping trip, Shirley was in the kitchen storing it away before a “great ball of fire” hit the kitchen window barely inches from where she was standing.

“I expected the roof to cave in; and the room to be destroyed, I thought I was gone”.

Kendra ran upstairs after seeing sparks fall from the roof.

The whole incident would have been over “within a second” they say.

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Incredibly, both Kendra and Shirley escaped any injury, and their property suffered no damage. Most of their concern went to Kendra’s bird, Chuckles, who was spooked by the incident.

Clean-up begins after giant hail, winds batter Maryborough

They suspect that an extension ladder left by a tradesman working on the house the day before may have saved Shirley and the house from damage by acting as a conductor.

Vanessa Maree took this photo of massive chunk of hail that fell from the sky in Gympie that same afternoon.

A Queensland Fire spokesman said they received 93 calls for help during Monday’s thunderstorm, with 60 on the Fraser Coast.

Thirty of the distress calls were for structural damage to buildings; two men were also injured in a car accident at Tinana during the storm.

Both were transferred to Hervey Bay Hospital in a stable condition.

Originally published as Torquay family survives lightning bolt inside house