SAN ANTONIO – A lightning strike is likely to blame for a house fire on the city’s Northeast Side late Monday night, the San Antonio Fire Department said.
“I heard a big crash...next thing I knew I heard this huge, gigantic, it sounded like a bomb went off,” Daniel Flores said.
Flores said he was sitting in the back room of his home when lightening struck the roof of the house next door.
He said it was so loud it sounded like something had crashed into his house. When he ran out to see what happened another neighbor pointed out that the house next to his was on fire. He said it was definitely a frightening moment.
“I was like I’m out of here,” Flores said.
The San Antonio Fire Department responded to the home in the 5800 block of Castle Run on the northeast side near Rittiman Road around 9 p.m. Monday. Firefighters say there was smoke and flames coming through the roof, but they were able to quickly knock it out.
The SAFD battalion chief on scene, Steve Reuthinger, explained what you should do if you hear something like that near your home during a storm.
”It is a good idea to at least look around your own house, look outside the windows, open up the attic... just look inside the attic, because if we can get to it early enough... we might get this thing out before it gets too big,” Reuthinger said.
Firefighters said the home has been empty and under construction, so no one was home when the lightening struck.
Flores said he is grateful no one was injured and says he is thankful the firefighters responded so quickly because it could’ve been much worse.
”I told the fire department last night if this tree would’ve went up in flames with the wind blowing it could’ve ended up at my house or the neighbors’ houses,” he said.
Damages to the home are estimated at $25,000.