Thunderbolt and Lightning very very frightening indeed!!

No poker played today, hadn't planned on updating for a while but tonight there's been a rather freak occurance in my life and I thought it might make the blog slightly more interesting.

Went to the farmers pub quiz, got back around 11:30ish, Jen went straight to bed and I stayed up for a bit on the comp just reading websites and stuff.

About 45 minutes to an hour later I heard some thunder. I have an enormous fear of lightning, it's my only phobia but it totally freaks me out so I kept the curtains and blinds closed and carried on with what I was doing.

Then there was a massive crack of thunder but the noise wasn't just thunder, I knew it must have hit somewhere very near to me, a few seconds later I noticed a burglar alarm was going off, I kept the blinds shut for a few minutes but it was still going off and the rain seemed to have eased so I figured we wouldn't see any more lightning so I could have a look out the window. (I'm so scared of lightning I had to have the blinds shut cos a flash of it really really freaks me out)

What I saw when I opened everything was a bit weird, I first saw what I thought was the burglar alarm across the road flashing, I then noticed a police car driving past very slowly, normally they drive past with sirens blaring but that's cos of my friends. I closed the blinds and went back to the computer but a few minutes later I noticed a definite smell of burning, quickly looked round the flat and saw everything was fine, opened the blinds and curtains again and I realised the roof of the house diagonally opposite was most definitely on fire! I was gonna ring 999 but I realised there were two police cars there already so it was probably not needed.

I didn't know what to do at this point, I just sat there staring at the orange glow, I thought I'd go outside and see what was going on and if there was anything I could do. As I was getting my warm clothes on I saw the fire brigade pull up. Now just in case anyone doesn't know, I live on a main road, most of the houses are absolutely massive, especially on the side where the house was on fire, and I mean massive, like 8 or 9 bedroomed mansions! I walked over to see what was going on and the whole roof was ablaze, the police were milling about and the fire brigade were getting their pumps and everything set up. I just stood and stared for about 5 minutes.

I was in disbelief, I think it dawned on me here how close it was to my flat, 100 metres away at the most, and in the big scheme of the world 100m is just absolutely nothing. After a while I realised there was no need to stand there, the emergency services were there. I was useless, I was about to go back home and I saw my next door neighbour. I told her what had happened, she'd heard the bang but thought it was a car crash. Then the guy who lived next door to the house on fire came over to us.

He told us that the police had woken them up banging on their door because they had to get out due to the fire in case it spread to their house. He told us that the owners weren't there, they didn't live there as they'd spent the last 18 months doing the place up getting it ready to live in it but it wasn't ready yet. He also said that noone had been able to get hold of them yet. He told me that the police had said that shortly after it happened there were roof slates shooting away from the house making it incredibly dangerous. I told the guy if he needed somewhere to sit and wait he could come back to mine but they had family further down the road where they were going if they needed.

I came back to the flat and I just stared out the window at the orange glow from across the street. I haven't really stopped looking since. The fire started on the roof and it's so windy tonight that the flames just seemed unabating, I can still see some orange now 5 hours on so I guess the fire still isn't extinguished.

I dunno what I'm feeling right now, I just felt so so sorry for the poor people who's home has been destroyed tonight, but also incredibly relieved it wasn't us but then shocked at how close it was to us.

This is the third time in my life that a lightning bolt has struck less than 100m from where I am, no wonder I'm so scared of it.

I do think I was in shock earlier, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing and I guess I felt a bit helpless knowing that there was just nothing I could do in this situation.

The road was closed for a bit, and I also saw the emergency gas maintenance van come down the road but I'm guessing that was just to switch off the gas to the house to prevent any explosions. Three times during the night I've heard a loud crash of glass breaking which I can only imagine to be the windows blowing out on various rooms where the fire has taken hold.

I'm expecting huge traffic jams down my road all day today as the emergency services are still there, there were 6 fire engines at one point, looks like fewer now though. People are gonna be rubber necking all day though, two teenage lads walked past at some point and were laughing about how cool it was. I don't find it cool.

Not really sure what else to say, I'm in a philosophical mood really. Better now than I was a few hours ago, I was just sat watching the fire from my lounge, I even went back out again around 2:30. No idea why, just wanted to do it I guess. I stood again for a few minutes, then I got hit in the face with a tiny burning ember and decided that was the sign to go back in.

All I can say is I really hope that no one I know has to go through the horror of a house fire, I can't even begin to imagine how these people are gonna be feeling today.

Hope everyone has a good day and stays safe.

Love to you all

Jon