By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
DESPITE the popular saying, last Tuesday’s lightning strike on a Dandenong North historic homestead may not have been the first time.
Owner John Pavlovic said the bolt on Melbourne Cup day caused $70,000 damage to the circa-1889 home Rossmoyne, after striking its middle brick chimney about 4pm.
“The chimney has just exploded and its bricks wiped out back of the house,” he said.
The top third of the chimney’s bricks were propelled by the strike, smashing the roof’s tiles, cracking a window and landing in the backyard. Such was its force, a mantelpiece at a downstairs fireplace was detached.
Last Wednesday, electricians repaired the shorted wiring as yellow SES tarpaulins covered a gaping hole in the roof.
Mr Pavlovic, who has lived at the house for eight years, said he’d heard the house had been struck by lightning “several times” before. “The chimney doesn’t have a lightning conductor. It’s just bricks like the other chimneys.”
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