- Island battered by heavy rain and thunderstorms
- Fire crews stretched to the limit
- St Helier home hit by lightning
- See a video of Jersey’s roads hit by this morning’s heavy rain below
A HOME in St Helier was struck by lighting and fire crews were stretched to the limit as the Island was battered by heavy rainfall and thunderstorms yesterday evening.
At one point 22 firefighters in six vehicles were dispatched across several parishes as the station control centre was inundated with 12 calls in less than 45 minutes from distressed Islanders.
Keep up to date with the latest weather forecast here
Crew commander Craig Channing said that ‘on call’ staff were pulled in to help deal with the volume of incidents as some areas of the Island experienced up to 28 mm of rainfall during the heavy downpour.
In St Helier fire crews attended a property which had been struck by lightning.
The building was inspected and minor structural damage was found but no one was injured.
Meanwhile, many people had a stressful journey into work this morning as the Island experienced even more heavy rain.
Rush hour traffic ground to a halt as many roads again experienced flooding, while many walkers would have arrived at work soaked through as the rain hit the morning communte.
Commenting on last night’s downpour, Mr Channing said: ‘We received around 12 calls in 45 minutes and every call needs a manned response.
‘It might not sound much but for crew like ours – which usually only has two vehicles on – it was busy.
‘There were five properties in Trinity that were the worst affected by flooding and we also responded to calls in St Aubin and Petit Port.’
Speaking about the lightning strike in St Helier Mr Channing said: ‘It was certainly hit by lighting but it only suffered minor structural damage.’
