A WOMAN is lucky to be alive after a lightning strike started a fire which burned two caravans to the ground close to where she had been sleeping.

Cindy Ramm, 51, was woken by a huge explosion at around 12.30am on Sunday.

She went into the lounge of her caravan and stamped out a fire caused by stray electricity.

She then went outside and realised the lightning strike on the trees had started fires in her two caravans used as a storage area and a large office.

Caravanners at Norden Farm campsite, Corfe Castle, and Cindy’s family members saw the flames and rushed to her aid and hauled her car out of harm’s way.

Forty one firefighters in five engines and other support vehicles extinguished the flames.

The explosion cracked a window of Cindy’s home, the electricity surge blew out phone lines, and the heat of the fire caused canned pet food to explode.

Cindy, one of the site co-owners, feared she would lose everything if the fire spread to her home, to nearby caravans or the trees.

“There was just no hope of stopping it. We tried fire extinguishers. There was just no chance, it was completely out of hand.

“It’s a very frightening thing when it gets going like that. I’m in a bit of shock."

“I regard myself as lucky. I was absolutely terrified last night.”

She added: “Everything, all the paperwork I have had over the last few years has gone, all the paperwork for the tax people, the VAT people.

“I don’t know what people do in situations like these.” Sister Kirsty Anstey, of Norden Farm Cottage said the explosion was a “boom” followed by a flash. She added: “We are all very lucky really.” Caravaners Sue and Colin Bartlett from Oxfordshire said the bang was “like a bomb going off”.

And Lee Hancox, a play area inspector also from Oxfordshire, felt the ground shake when the power went out.

“I could see 10 or 12 foot high flames which I thought was Cindy’s house.” Phil Head, district fire commander for Weymouth and Portland, said: “The rain perhaps aided us.

“When you see how close the damaged premises are in comparison to premises that are still standing it is a credit to the crews that they contained it.”