A Tucker's Town family had a narrow escape when their home was struck by lightning - but their pet goldfish was not so lucky.Poppy Pereira was drinking coffee with her three teenage daughters when the bolt struck their five-bedroom house during a storm around 10am yesterday.“We heard this loud explosion and had no idea where it was coming from,” explained Mrs Pereira, 45, who was on the ground floor at the time.“It sounded like a bomb had exploded. There was a large cloud of smoke and we couldn't see anything. I have never heard anything so loud in my life. It was so scary all four of us just screamed and panicked.”Mrs Pereira and her daughters, 17-year-old twins Melissa and Lauren and 14-year-old Nikki, ran up to the living area on the third floor.There, they discovered the chimney stack had been struck by lightning, damaging the roof and sending masonry flying onto the outside balcony.“There was smoke upstairs and it smelled like electricity,” said Mrs Pereira, who called her husband Ed at work.Mr Pereira, who owns Atlantic Construction and Pereira Engineering, dialled 911 and sent some of his staff to the scene.“I was so panicked I could not speak,” explained Mrs Pereira, who then noticed Nikki's goldfish, Spocti, floating dead in his bowl in the upstairs TV room.Two fire trucks were soon on the scene, and while there was no electrical fire, the family discovered their air conditioning, telephones and TV sets had all been knocked out by the power surge.“I'm still shaky now,” said Mrs Pereira, speaking to The Royal Gazette nearly two hours after the incident. “It's just a scary thing to be hit by lightning like that. I mean, what are the chances? This is just one of those freak acts of nature.”Nikki Pereira said: “I was sitting on the couch and heard this loud bang. I thought the ceiling had come down. I was pretty scared, and when I walked into the room, there was smoke everywhere.”* Were you affected by this storm? Email news@royalgazette.bm