Lightning strike from Wednesday storm sparks fire destroying Lawrenceville home
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Fire officials blame intense storms Wednesday night for a house fire in Lawrenceville.
"We are fortunate and unfortunate. This is our childhood house for 32 years. It’s very sad. My parents lost everything. Everything inside is ruined and burned," Sonam Shah Said.
Sonam Shah’s parents live in the home on Margate Court in Lawrenceville.
Cell phone video captured by neighbors caught the moments after a lightning strike sparked a fire at around 11:40 Wednesday night which destroyed the home.
"My parents were fortunate not to have been in the house. The lightning struck right in the master bedroom," Shah said.
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Whether you look from the ground, drone or helicopter the damage is hard to miss.
"All of a sudden you hear a boom. It was a big boom. You saw the lighting too and that tells you it was close. It was too close. Way too close for comfort," Vincent Conley said.
Vincent Conley lives across the street and says he rushed out to help.
"Everyone was concerned. Nobody knew if they were home or not because both of their cars were in the garage. We didn’t know," Conley said.
FOX 5 was there as the homeowners laid eyes on their damage home for the first time. They were traveling for a cruise and fire officials say it would have been a different story if they were inside the home.
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"They never go anywhere. They are homebody people. Literally last night my mother called and asked about the storms and I said everything is fine, and I think as soon as we hung up that’s when the lightning struck the bedroom," Shah said.
"Be considerate and friends with your neighbors. You never know what’s going to happen because it’s life. Real life and it happened across the street from us," Conley said.
As a family comes together to salvage what they can, they know things can be replaced, but lives can not.
"You have more chances winning the lottery than being struck by lightning, so it’s very sad," Shah said.
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