A LIGHTNING bolt took out a Heybridge Basin man's 50 foot fir tree during a violent storm.
The tree in Colin Flatt's back garden was chopped in half last Monday as huge storms raged over Essex.
Mr Flatt, 73, who lives in Harfred Avenue, said: "The thunder and lightning was really noisy that night so I was up and looking out the window.
"It was about 4.30am when I saw it hit and take out the tree.
"It was just so bright, it lit up the bedroom. It was almost like a bomb had gone off in my garden. I know things like this happen all the time but you never think that it will happen to you."
Mr Flatt's partner Melanie was also woken by the storms that night, which also took out the couple's electricity.
She said: "It was quite a blast. We were up because of the noise anyway then I heard an almighty crack and everything went white."
The tree fell down, just missing the shed and creating a large mess of broken branches and leaves, but remarkably left no charring or burn marks, just a sharp crack in the wood.
Mr Flatt, a former professional footballer who played for Southend, Leyton Orient and Barnet, said: "I feel lucky because it didn't hit the house – God only knows how bad the damage would have been then. It's just a huge inconvenience now, it took out a lot of my electrics so I'm busy trying to get everything up and running again.
"We have had no TV which can be pretty annoying and we've got to replace all of the equipment that has been damaged – you don't realise how much you miss things until they are gone.
"It has been a lot of hard work clearing the mess after the lightning hit and also hard work getting my life going again."
