SAHUARITA, Ariz. (KGUN) — On Tuesday, lightning struck a house that sparked a fire at a house in Sahuarita.
The woman who was inside the house at the time heard a loud boom followed by crackling in her garage. When she checked inside of it, she saw that the strike started a fire.
"All of the sudden we heard this tremendous boom, and we knew it was close," Kevin Hortel, who lives a few houses down, said. "It definitely rocked the neighborhood."
Hortel was on his back patio with a friend when the bolt hit the house.
"I said to him it smells like someone is barbecuing, it smells like mesquite," Hortel said.
When they went to check what had happened, they saw fire coming from their neighbors house. The Rural Metro Fire Department responded within eight minutes and worked to quickly put out the fire.
"You know it's not uncommon for lightning to hit structures," Jay Karlik, Assistant Fire Chief of the Rural Metro Fire Department, said. "It’s fairly uncommon for it to cause that kind of damage and have that extent of a fire but it’s not completely unheard of."
The home is now uninhabitable, but some items were able to be saved.
"Every time now that it storms, I am going to be concerned," Hortel said. "If it can happen there, it can happen here."
The homeowner escaped with minor burns and is now staying with relatives for the time being.
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Greg Bradbury is a reporter for KGUN 9. Greg is a graduate of Syracuse University where he studied Broadcast Journalism and Spanish. Greg joined KGUN 9 in February 2021 as a Multimedia Journalist after working at the ABC National Desk as a Digital News Associate. Share your story ideas and important issues with Greg by emailing greg.bradbury@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
