WOODBURY - Woodbury firefighters were called to a neighborhood Wednesday for a house struck by lightning, the second time it happened on the same street in recent years.
Neighbors heard a boom and saw lightning flash from as far as five houses away.
"I was in the dinette, and it felt like it was right in the house," said Rochelle Woodward, who was home along with her son, Roman.
Once she and her son Roman, a 2015 East Ridge High School grad, were out of the house, Woodward's thoughts quickly turned to his graduation party scheduled for Saturday, but firefighters didn't have to put water lines through the house to fight a blaze.
The lightning pierced the roof and insulation, charring wood inside the bathroom at the peak of the house. Firefighters quickly cooled the hot spot from the outside. Then they located a burnt beam or stud upstairs, cutting the scorched wood out of the house, potentially saving the grad party.
There were no injuries, just a spectacle for a concerned section of the neighborhood that experienced its second lightning strike in recent years. Three houses down the street, 1 1/2 years ago, lightning struck the peak of another house -- a strikingly similar situation and a scary thing, according to the neighbor.
