Janet and Terry Howells were taken to Katoomba Hospital on Thursday evening after battling a blaze that broke out in the bedroom of their Macquarie Road home when a lightning bolt ignited a set of curtains.

Incredibly, just three weeks ago the house’s power board was struck, with the resulting surge melting meters and leaving much of the couple’s electronics equipment unusable.

“I’m lucky I’m still alive,” said Mr Howells when asked if he felt fortune had deserted him. “I’m lucky that everything’s still here.”

Mr Howells was driving about 4.30pm when his wife, who was home at the time, called to tell him the house was on fire.

“I floored it from Warrimoo . . . The lightning strike had gone through the window and set fire to the curtains and the blinds so she was using the bucket,” said Mr Howells. “When I got (home) I took over bucketing because she was overcome by smoke and then it wasn’t long before that I was overcome by smoke, but I got the flames out.”

The nylon curtains were reduced to “dripping molten flames” that set parts of the carpet alight. Thanks to the quick-thinking action of the Howells the damage was limited to a small area surrounding the window and a blown main power switch.

Firefighters from the Springwood station arrived on the scene to contain the situation and clear smoke that had made its way through the entire house. The Howells were taken to the hospital by paramedics, where they were treated for three hours for smoke inhalation.

The emergency services were kept busy across the Mountains with a number of incidents including another house fire caused by a lightning strike on Thursday, this time at Leura — nobody required treatment.

Lightning also caused additional problems on Wednesday with power outages reported including a more than two-hour blackout between Blackheath and Mount Victoria while buses were needed to replace trains between Lithgow and Mount Victoria after a suspension of services.