DOC building burns after lightning strike | NZ FIJI TIMES

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UPDATED: 7:18am – Three houses have been struck by lightning on the Manukau Heads and a DOC building is ablaze as thunderstorms cause havoc across the North Island this morning.

A Department of Conservation building in the central North Island is on fire after a suspected lightning strike this morning.

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Three neighbouring homes on Westhead Rd on Auckland’s Manukau Heads have been struck, and smoke is showing from two homes.

A direct hit on the Mangakino Telephone Exchange has cut landlines to the Waikato township.

Fire and Emergency northern shift manager Jaron Phillips said the Pureora Forest Park DOC office on Barryville Rd was engulfed by fire.

A fierce thunderstorm was over the Waitomo District at the time and a lightning strike may have sparked the blaze.

“There was a front moving across and there was a large storm at the time,” said Phillips.

Fire crews from Mangakino, Benneydale, Tokoroa and Otorohanga were battling the blaze in the single-storey building.

Three neighbouring houses had been struck by a bolt. Four fire crews were headed to the remote west coast properties.

Water was now leaking through the roof of one of the hit homes.

Meanwhile the settlement of Mangakino has been lashed by the stormy weather with flooding and a lightning strike hitting the main telephone network before dawn.

Phillips said fire crews encountered flooding leaving to fight the Pureora blaze.

A strike had triggered the fire alarm at the Mangakino Telephone Exchange and the town was now without landlines, he said.

This morning a band of thunderstorms are approaching Auckland off the west coast of the North Island and is due to hit about dawn as rush hour starts.

-NewstalkZB

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