‘Be watchful, be careful': Florida family rebuilding after lightning hits home, catches fire
Home burns after reportedly hit by lightning
A family in Brevard County is glad to be alive after, they say, their home was struck by lightning during the recent thunderstorms and sparked a fire that ravaged the home. Michael Walker said the fire started on the right side of his house and quickly spread as the winds picked up. Video he shared with FOX 35 shows the entire inside of the house burned and destroyed by the fire. FOX 35's Esther Bower gives us a look inside and shares Michael's story.
MELBOURNE, Fla. - A Florida family is rebuilding after they said their home was hit by lightning and destroyed in a fire. It happened on June 20 in Melbourne, when Brevard County was under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. A week later, there's a lot of debris left behind.
Michael Walker said the fire started on the right side of the house and quickly spread as the wind picked up strength. There is a gaping hole where his roof used to be, and he’s looking at severe weather in a whole new light.
"The house is demolished," Walker said in a video he taped the day after the fire.
Charred bedrooms and piles of ash are the marks Mother Nature left behind."Whoosh! Boom! And then it went on for another five minutes – just lightning, lightning, lightning," Walker exclaimed.
He said the fire started in the attic and quickly spread. Thankfully, four kids weren’t home, and his dog even made it out.
Michael Walker said a fire started on the right side of his house and quickly spread as the wind picked up strength. He believes it was sparked by a lightning strike.
"That was my first time in a lightning storm, and trust and believe – I never want to be in something like that again," he added.
In their report, the Melbourne Fire Department said they couldn’t pinpoint what exactly started the fire. The chief said it could have been an electrical issue, or it could have been lightning, and Walker’s hypothesis times out.
"We had the perfect set-up for a lot of lightning," said FOX 35 Meteorologist, Brooks Garner. "It was a very warm day with highs in the lower 90s. The dew points were in the mid-70s, so there was a lot of moisture in the air, a lot of energy to tap."
Michael Walker said a fire started on the right side of his house and quickly spread as the wind picked up strength. He believes it was sparked by a lightning strike.
Florida is known as the "Lightning Capital of North America," so homeowners should take precautions to protect their homes. State Farm said homeowners should make an electrical surge plan by asking an electrician to check their home’s grounding system and plugging electronics and appliances into surge protective devices.
"I just sat there in tears trying to figure out how to get myself restructured," Walker said while looking at his destroyed property.
He is hoping to find stable housing before his kids go back to school.
"Better be watchful. Better be careful," he concluded.
According to the Insurance Information Institute, Florida tops the list for lightning insurance claims with an average payout of $20,000 per claim.