Lightning strike sparks fire and lucky escape

A property owner in Lawrence is glad he decided to stay up and watch the electrical storm last night, otherwise he might have been waking up to a bushfire. 

"It was lucky we happened to be watching the storm, otherwise it could have been a lot worse," he said. 

The resident, who did not wish to be named, said his family had been watching last night's electrical storm from a bedroom window when they heard a loud crack. 

"It was so loud; much louder than the other claps," he said. 

"A minute later we spotted an orange glow in the distance and instantly knew it was a lightning strike.  It had ignited the dry grass in one of the paddocks and who knows how fast it might spread given how dry it's been so we rang triple zero." 

The resident said a stockyard and several hundred hectares of bushland were approximately 20 metres from the fire. 

Fortunately, no animals or residential property were in the path of the fire. 

"The rain had slowed down by then and the wind was pushing the fire straight toward them so it could have been a disaster." 

Fortunately, Lawrence RFS arrived at the scene before the flames had a chance to reach the stockyards and contained the fire. 

Lawrence RFS captain Scott Campbell said that in recent weeks there had been several fires ignited through lightning strike. 

"It's quite common at this time of year," he said. 

"There have been a lot of fires started by lightning strike over the last three weeks because there's no moisture in the ground and generally where the lightning strikes that's where the fires are starting." 

Residents are reminded to call triple zero if they see any unattended fires.