FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas — A family in the Sugar Land area is in shock after a lightning strike caused an early-morning fire that heavily damaged their home and belongings.
The family of seven spent the morning carrying trash bags full of the belongings they could salvage from the two-story home.
The fire on Sugarbridge Trail between Old Richmond Road and West Bellfort Avenue started around 3:30 a.m. Ring video from a neighbor's house showed the lightning strike that caused it.
“I heard the thunderstorm and everything and then suddenly the light in my room went out," Shehriz Lakhani told us. "I was the one who smelled smoke because it was directly coming in my room a lot."
She quickly alerted other family members, including her grandmother who uses a wheelchair.
“I came out and woke everybody up and then I realized it was coming from the attic,” Shehriz said. "If I didn't wake them up one minute later, my whole room would have been burned."
Her mother told us the firefighters got there quickly or it could have been even worse.
“We are very much thankful ... because fire and rescue came within five minutes, it was unbelievable,” she said.
Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Once outside, they alerted neighbors.
“The neighbor called me to wake me up, so we got up and see there was a heavy fire going on here,” DJ Jammli said.
The family allowed us inside their damaged home where you could see the hole caused by the lightning from the first floor.
The Fort Bend County Fire Marshal said there were multiple overnight fires related to the weather, including two in the Katy area.
Lightning may have also caused a fire on Freeman Street in north Houston that sent two people to the hospital, HFD arson investigators said.
The same storm system spawned a tornado that caused extensive damage in the Katy area.