'It was like a bomb' (From Witney Gazette)

'It was like a bomb'

9:00am Wednesday 20th September 2006 in Witney By Maddy Biddulph

EXPLODING plugs, broken computers and televisions, then total darkness was the aftermath of a lightning bolt which hit a Burford hotel.

New owners Paula and Graham Cox, who run Burford Lodge Hotel, in Oxford Road, have been left picking up the pieces after the freak weather on Monday, September 11.

The couple were forced to close for a few days, and have been left struggling to replace lighting and broken equipment, as well as getting their e-mail and telephone system up and running.

Mrs Cox said luckily no one had been hurt in the incident, although she had been knocked to the floor from the force of the lightning when it had struck at about 6.30pm.

She said: "It was all a bit of a laugh and a joke to start with. I have never heard or experienced anything like that - it was the kind of noise I imagined a bomb to make."

The hotel restaurant, which was full of customers, had to be evacuated, because the lightning affected the power in the kitchen.

Mrs Cox said: "It has been a nightmare getting everything back up and running.

"We have been here less than a year, so it is a real setback."

A spokesman for Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said two crews from Bampton fire station attended the hotel, but the blaze, in a wooden office, was already out.