Eynsham mother Jacqui Hudson told yesterday of her lucky escape after lightning struck her TV aerial and her ceiling collapsed on her.

Mrs Hudson, 46, was lying on her bed talking to a friend on the phone when the bolt of lightning struck at 3pm, at the height of Saturday's storm.

As the flaming ceiling collapsed on top of her, setting fire to the bedding, the mother-of-two put out the flames with her bare hands. She later had treatment for burns at Witney Hospital.

She visited her GP yesterday to see if she needed further treatment to the burns on her hand.

She said: "My hands are still very sore, so I can't really do anything. My right hand is covered with these huge blisters.

"At the time, I knew I had to put the fire out the quickest way I could and I'm glad I did, because otherwise things could have been a lot worse."

A neighbour in Tilgarsley Road, who saw the lightning hit the aerial, rushed round with two fire extinguishers and helped Mrs Hudson's husband Chris, also 46, to put out a fire in the attic.

Mrs Hudson, a clerical assistant in a local health centre, said: "All of a sudden, there was this horrendous noise, followed instantly by a crash and basically the ceiling fell on top of me it was pretty terrifying really.

"I think we were lucky very lucky the fact that nobody was hurt is the main thing even though it's a wreck inside the house. I've got to remember that everybody is OK.

"The lady across the road actually saw the lightning strike the TV aerial on the roof and said it was horren- dous.

"I think everybody in Eynsham heard the noise.

"All the roof will need replacing."

Mr Hudson said it was fortunate no-one was killed. He told the Oxford Mail: "The lightning hit the TV aerial at 3pm.

"Then it came down through the master bedroom and right through to the ground floor where it blew the TV socket off the wall.

"It brought the whole ceiling down on Jacqui but by the time I got to her, she had already put the fire out with her hands.

"A neighbour who saw the lightning strike said it dislodged tiles on the roof like dominoes and they came crashing down on to our Renault Cabriolet, which is all dented.

"We are living downstairs at the moment and are waiting for a call from our insurers to assess the damage.

"The neighbours were fantastic and we would like to thank the firefighters who took down the ceiling which was unstable.

"If the neighbour hadn't come round with the extinguisher, the fire would have done a lot more damage to the house.

"The lightning almost knocked the doors off their hinges and the TVs and computer are all broken now."

The lightning strike was one of 160 calls attended by Oxfordshire's firefighters on Saturday, after the storm caused flooding across the county, including Botley, Kidlington and Bicester.

The storm just 72 hours after the hottest July day on record brought one month's average rainfall (40.8mm or 1.6in) in just two hours.