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In mid-February 2002, two women in Ballydehob and their children were fortunate to not be hurt or worse as a devastating lightning strike hit one of their houses.
Clara McGowan and her children had just arrived at Terri O'Mahoney's house in Audley Cove for a playdate when the ceiling above them caved in.
There were five children in the house, aged three to ten.
The destructive lightning strike was powerful enough to reduce the 70-foot Cappaghglas chimney stack to a 'gnarled stump.'
The Cappaghglas chimney stack had stood there untouched for 200-years and was a local landmark.
To further demonstrate how lucky the occupants of the stricken house were, a local farmer lost six of his calves to the incident.
"I thought the light had fallen on me as I was thrown into complete blackness. I couldn’t hear or see anything at all and we are very lucky to be alive," Clara stated.
"We don’t know even now what really happened but surmise that the fork of lightning which brought down the 200 year old chimney stack of a nearby copper mine, forked and caused a power surge in the house."
"I knew I was screaming, but I couldn’t hear my voice or hear or see anyone or anything else. I started off thinking everyone was dead and the children tell me now they were screaming too, but I was deaf and suffering from the intense heat. My face felt as if it were on fire and I thought my skin would be charred. I thought we were under some kind of attack."
Clara said: "I had burn marks and a massive heat rash down one side of my body. I did not hear the bang as I was juddering and shaking like a cartoon character who hits a ‘live’ wire. I remember screaming, ‘Don’t touch me ! Don’t touch me !’ because I knew I was live with electricity and I thought if anyone touched me they would get killed too. I, fortunately, was wearing rubber boots and sitting on a wooden bench."
The children in the house evaded injury despite the kitchen being reduced to a 'mangled, twisted, unrecognisable wreck', and the stair banisters ended up lodged in the roof.
"I just wanted to get us all away as fast as we possibly could. Only Clara had something on her feet. The rest of us had socks on. The window glass had been blasted 50 metres into the field and the garden.
The panel between the kitchen and hall has completely gone. There is a boiler outside in a house and the boiler was on fire. But, although Clara and I suffered from the intense heat and our faces were a strange colour, we only have superficial cuts and bruises."
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