Crime & Safety

Lightning Strikes Home on Landings Lane; No One Injured in Fire

A homeowner was awakened by a flash of light and a loud bang at 6 a.m. Monday, June 20.

When Oak Forest homeowner Cheryl Vacca saw a flash of light and felt her whole house shake Monday around 6 a.m., she wasn't quite sure what had happened.

"It sounded like what you would imagine a bomb to sound like," Vacca said.

Next came the smoke alarm and the discovery that a spare room in her home was fillng with smoke from a fire sparked by a lightning strike in the roof above.

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Oak Forest Fire Department arrived on the scene and extinguished the blaze within minutes, Vacca said. The room was a loss, said Vacca, who purchased the house in the 15000 block of Landings Lane in January with her fiancée Russ. It will require new drywall, new wiring, new roof above it. The power of the strike also surged through the home's plumbing, bursting a pipe in another room.

"I guess considering, it was pretty minimal," Vacca said.

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Fire Chief Terry Lipinski said he's seen extensive damage from lightning strikes. The department fields about four or five calls for lightning strikes each year.

"I've seen buildings burned down," Lipinski said.

Not every lightning strike that happens is called in, he said.

"Some people don't even know they've been hit," Lipinski said.

Others might hear a lightning strike nearby, but think it's hit closer than in actuality, he said.

In case of a lightning strike in a home, the fire department checks the electrical wiring throughout the home, in addition to the plumbing. The electrical current from a lightning strike can travel through wiring and walls—which Lipinski has seen happen, melting wiring and siding from a home. 

"...Things happen that you can't imagine," Lipinski said.


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