Storm fire escape

By Tania Martin
A KALORAMA couple narrowly escaped a house fire last week after lightning caused the gas meter on their home to explode.
Shortly after 3am on Tuesday, 15 November, Marleyne Williams and her fiance John Bond were lying in bed when the fire started.
But, their next door neighbour saw the fire and alerted them that their house was on fire and helped them to safety.
Kalorama Country Fire Authority captain Bill Robinson said the fire was the most unusual he had seen in his 14-year fire fighting career.
Capt Robinson said that lightning normally strikes power poles and trees, not gas meters.
He said the lightening struck the electricity mains, ran down the power cables, blew up the switchboard, and ran across to the gas meter where it blew the top off the connection and the gas caught alight.
Capt Robinson said the garage attached to the residence then went up in flames.
He described the flames as a big blow torch which went through the ceiling of the garage, before spreading to the house.
Although the house was fitted with working smoke alarms, Capt Robinson said they hadn’t gone off because there was not enough smoke.
“If a fire is burning hot and properly there is not much smoke, it is only if the fire is not burning properly there is a lot of smoke,” he said.
Capt Robinson said the couple was lucky that their neighbour from across the road had noticed the fire and came to their aid.
Kalorama CFA arrived on the scene shortly after and it took 15 minutes to contain the fire.
However, Capt Robinson said because of the atmospheric radio traffic from the storm he was unable to radio into the fire station for extra supplies and had to use the brigade’s mobile phone.
Capt Robinson said it took two Kalorama tankers, a Montrose pumper vehicle and 25 fire fighters to contain the blaze.
He said once the fire was contained, energy supplier TRU also had to check out the house adjacent to Marleyne and John in case the fault caused another fire.
The Mail attempted to contact Marleyne and John but was unable to get a comment before going to print.