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Lightning strike blew up broadband box - resident

BBC Steve Hodgson, wearing a blue jumper and shirt and standing in front of a cabinet at his home in Telford, with photos in frames on the wall behind him.BBC
Steve Hodgson said lightning blew up his electrical equipment

An ex-forces man whose home was hit by lightning says he has been left without an internet service after his broadband equipment exploded in an "enormous bang".

Storms battered the West Midlands over the weekend and Steve Hodgson, from Telford, said because he was ex-military he knew there had been an explosion.

He said he was now without his Virgin service but had received texts from the company to say the service was “fine”.

A spokesman for Virgin Media said repairs were being carried out on Monday and many services had been restored but some customers may still be experiencing issues.

Ceiling 'shook'

Steve Hodgson, of Brookside, said: “Because it was raining and we were having thunderstorms, I thought it was a clap of thunder, and then I thought, ‘no, I’m ex-military, I’ve heard that before – that was an explosion’.”

He said he had smelled electrical burning and moved a cabinet to find a burnt-out plug socket and a mark on the wall where his television had blown up - and discovered his broadband box had blown out.

Next door, the ceiling had shaken, nails had come through the ceiling from the joists and his neighbour was still without power, Mr Hodgson said.

“The only thing that we’ve both got in common is that we were attached to Virgin TV,” he said.

“Because I’d gone upstairs, I turned the television on standby, so the box was still on, and I believe that’s why it blew the television.

“If I had turned the whole system off, it probably would not have done that.”

He claimed there had been a power surge and now wanted to know what safety measures were in place.

Images shows a mark on the wall where the television was
Steve Hodgson found burnt-out plug sockets and a mark where the television had been

The Virgin Media spokesman said: "We have had an engineer on site today to carry out repair works and many customers’ services are now back up and running.

"Some customers may still be experiencing issues where the lightning has damaged their Virgin Media equipment, and we will arrange appointments to repair this damage and restore their services as soon as we can."

Further heavy rain was forecast on Monday, with warnings of flooded roads and outages.

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