Geelong, Australia, December 13—Lightning has been blamed for a fire which forced the evacuation of 30 staff at Godfrey Hirst carpet factory on Friday night, according to the Geelong Advertiser.
A roof-top air-conditioning unit at the South Geelong complex caught alight during an electrical storm, sparking the blaze.
CFA region seven operations manager Bob Barry yesterday said it caused significant damage to the Factories Road building.
He said a 3 metre x 10 metre section of roof was damaged, along with the air-conditioning unit. "It will have a reasonable dollar figure," Mr Barry said.
CFA crews were called to the factory about 9 pm.
They used an aerial platform to try to reach the blaze but were quickly forced to remove firefighters from the roof with the threat of a second storm front.
"(The fire) is believed to be caused by lightning striking an air-conditioning unit," Mr Barry said. "It also set the roof on fire and 30 people were evacuated to the car park."
Workers were yesterday cleaning up water damage from the sprinkler system and heavy rain. Mr Barry praised Godfrey Hirst for responding quickly to the freak act of nature.
Lightning strikes also continued to caused headaches for Powercor, which was kept busy with powerline faults throughout the region.
Spokesman Damien Batey said more than 2,300 homes in Ocean Grove were without power for almost two hours on Saturday morning.
Homes from Shell Road to Mannerim were affected by the lightning-related fault at 7.45 am.
"Our crews were on high alert over the weekend," Mr Batey said.
"Thankfully because our resources were stretched to the maximum we got workers from our sister company CitiPower to come out and help."
