CO CLARE HOUSEHOLDER Ronan Kelly says he was “fairly” scared when a phone socket exploded off the wall during a lightning storm on Monday night.
Kelly, who is a wedding photographer, was in the house with his wife Sinead and two young children (the youngest is just three weeks old) when the incident happened – at around 10.30pm.
No-one was hurt, but Kelly said “there was a lot of electricity flying around the room” and that blue light shot out of the socket.
A laptop computer – which wasn’t plugged in – was “completely melted”.
“There were four or five really bad lightning strikes. The socket blew out just as the last one happened,” said Kelly – who lives in the village of Clonlara, just north of Limerick city.
“The main trip-switch of the house went off straight away.”
Neighbours nearby reported similar damage, Kelly said. Electricity was out for the rest of the night, but the house was reconnected at around 8am.
“It was pretty scary,” he said – noting that, somehow, his one-year-old had managed to sleep through the entire thing.
Kelly said the damage to the computer would be covered by his insurance.
“In the instance of damage to Eircom lines and sockets, Eircom recommends that customers contact us by dialling 1901 to advise of the fault, which will then be logged for repair,” an Eircom spokesperson said in a statement.
Unlike electrical sockets, telephone sockets are not live.
“However, Eircom advises that customers and residents keep the area clear until the technician arrives to carry out the repair.”
Met Éireann issued several weather alerts in advance of Monday’s stormy weather. Clare County Council also issued its own warning, after forecasts suggested the area would be particularly badly hit.
“Whilst there has been no significant network damage, pockets of lightning in Clare have resulted in high fault counts on the Eircom network,” Eircom said.
Over the last two days 70 faults have been reported.
“Eircom has mobilised additional repair crews to Clare and will keep this under review over the next few days.”
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