BLAZE STRIKE Hero teacher, 36, saves his neighbours’ lives after LIGHTNING bolt strikes roof before setting house on fire
A HERO teacher saved his neighbours’ lives after a lightning bolt struck a roof and set a house on fire.
Stuart Dunn, 36, looked out his window during a ferocious storm to see his neighbour’s house ablaze in South Wales last month.
Dramatic footage captured the moment the strike hit the roof, triggering a devastating inferno that left the house in Carmarthenshire severely damaged on May 27.
Stuart dashed to the blaze to wake the woman asleep with her dog in the downstairs room.
The primary school teacher then had to shine a torch through a window to wake another neighbour who was fast asleep wearing an eye mask and ear plugs.
Stuart had been unable to sleep due to the storm when he looked out of the window and spotted the fire.
Shocking footage captured by another resident shows a powerful bolt hitting the roof of a house across the road before a huge flash lights up the night sky.
Within moments, flames began to take hold of the property with further footage showing the home engulfed by fire as emergency crews raced to the scene.
Stuart said: “It was quite unnerving, I’ve never heard thunder like that in my life.”
He said he saw a “bright orange” flash out of the window after getting up in the night to use the toilet.
“I assumed it was a streetlight at first,” he said.
“But I noticed it disappeared and then came back again, so I opened the window which is when I saw the flames on the roof.”
Dressed in just a T-shirt and sliders, he then sprinted to the affected property opposite his home and said the homeowner had no idea her roof was on fire.
“I think she was in shock,” he added.
“She came out of the house and I phoned 999. A few of the neighbours began to come out of their houses too but not the woman who lives next door to the house that was on fire.”
He then tried the neighbouring home but could not get an answer.
“I began flashing my phone torch as close to the window as I could and then she popped her head out, then we let her know what was going on,” Stuart continued.
“She was sleeping with an eye mask on, and ear plugs so had not heard what had happened either.”
He said he was glad when he was able to get her out of the building to phone her insurance company while firefighters tackled the blaze.
“It wouldn’t have sat well with me to have closed the window and gone back to bed,” he added.
“At the time I wasn’t aware if anyone else had seen what happened or were aware of the flames.
“You’d hope any normal person would go over to let them know and help out. I don’t think what I did was heroic, you just do it.”
Residents described the storm as one of the most intense they had ever witnessed, with repeated lightning strikes and rolling thunder lighting up the sky for hours.
Firefighters arrived on the scene shortly before 11.30pm but despite their best efforts, the damage was severe and the roof had collapsed by the following morning.
The fire also spread to a neighbouring property but Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said “no injuries were reported”.
