Lightning blasts through attic of home in Cheesequake, NJ; neighbors say it was 'brutally loud'
CHEESEQUAKE, New Jersey (WABC) -- A home in New Jersey was badly damaged after it was struck by lightning during a round of severe thunderstorms on Thursday.
Neighbors like Joe Velez say it was the biggest pop he's ever heard.
It was lightning blasting through the attic of his next-door neighbor's home in Cheesequake on Thursday afternoon.
"I heard this thing and it was incredibly close and as loud as it could be," Velez said. "I mean it was as brutally loud as it could possibly be to your ears."
John Johnson is the next-door neighbor on the other side of the home that was struck.
"When I came outside the smoke was coming out of the roof already," he said.
He says he could hear the lighting piercing his neighbor's attic, then saw it filling with smoke.
"Just heavy, heavy black smoke," he said. "It sounded like lighting hit. You know that crack you get when there's lighting. It wasn't thunder. It was that whack real close."
The home is one of six townhouses attached to each other.
Residents say there's a firewall between each of the homes which prevented the fire from spreading down the line.
Firefighters arrived on the scene within minutes.
Along with mutual aid, they got the fire under control within a half an hour.
They responded to 17 weather-related calls on Thursday.
"Biggest challenge was we had very heavy rain at the time. The conditions were poor for us to begin with," said Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Michael Petschauer.
The devastated homeowners declined to speak on camera, but off camera they say they felt the house shake.
They lost nearly everything they own, and they've lived at the home for more than 30 years.
"It's really lucky. They were home," Petschauer said. "Thankfully, they got their pets out. I think they lost a couple parakeets, but they got their four dogs out."
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