COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Three homes east of Columbus were reportedly struck by lighting overnight Wednesday.
The first, reported at 6637 Blacklick Eastern Road, happened just after 1am. Firefighters say they believe the home was struck by lightning causing a fire at the residence.
Two other homes were struck by lightning just after 2am. A strike at 470 Doverwood Road resulted in a fire as well. The structure suffered heavy damage to the roof and rear.
The lightning strike at 849 Sunview Road caused a minor fire, and a gas leak. Crews say the situation was contained quickly.
No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.
Fire crews say they are confident that lightning strikes were the cause of the fires but they will continue to investigate in order to confirm.
According to firefighters, a fire at a house on Manchester Circle North in Pickeringtom was also started by a lightning strike. The homeowner says the strike happened at about 1:30am and he lost power. At daylight he was able to see the damage to the side of the house and the smoke coming from the attic. Firefighters were able to contain the fire.
“Lightning hit the house sometime in the middle of the night and had a nice size hole in the side of the house,” said Lt. John Davis with the Violet Township Fire Department. “There was a lot of charring and a lot of the insulation was still kind of burning.”
The homeowner says he was sleeping when he heard a loud bang around 2 a.m. He thought nothing of it and went back to sleep. But when he woke up hours later, tere was smoke and a huge hole in his roof. Next door neighbors say the sound was horrifying.
“We were all sleeping and we all jumped out of bed, a little panicked at the moment. Because it felt like it was really close, obviously it was,” said Michelle Shimp.
Luckily the fire did not spread. Firefighters were able to get it under control quickly. The home owner says he’s not happy to have a hole in his bedroom, but he’s lucky to be alive.