Lightning Strike

We had built the house in League City in 1971 and moved in between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In the summer of 1972, Kathy took Britany and Scott to California to visit her parents. While they were gone I was to build a swings in the back yard for them. I made a trip to the lumber yard and got the materials I needed and started measuring and cutting and fooling around. 

By mid afternoon I was at a good stopping point and pretty darn hot and lt looked like rain so I called it a day. I went in through the garage and since I had my house to myself, I left my sweaty tee shirt and cutoffs in the garage near the washer and proceeded au natural to the master bath for a cold shower.

As I was showering there was an extremely loud lightning/thunder combination. My thought was, ‘That was mighty close.’ Little did I know. 

I finished the shower, stepped out to dry off and got a whiff of smoke. My first thought was. ‘I wasn’t cooking anything so what is going on?’ So I proceeded, buck naked into the hall and around the corner and saw smoke pouring out of Britany’s door. I looked in and saw flames in the front half of the room so I ran to the kitchen to get a pot of water to douse the fire.

About this time the phone rang - I did not know it but it was Kathy. I filled the pot and by then the smoke was too thick to go back into the hallway. The phone was ringing so I could not call 911. I had no clothes. Dang!

I scrambled into the garage and donned the sweaty work clothes and ran outside to go next door to call the fire department. It was pouring rain by this time. As I started for the neighbor’s house,  the other neighbors from across the streed drove up. I ran to their car and asked them to call the fire department. 

I ran back to the house and grabbed the hose, turned it on and drug it to Britany’s window. I pulled the screen off, used the hose to break out a window pane and turned the stream onto the fire.

What had happened was that lightning had struck a small portable TV on a table in her room adjacent to the window. The TV was aflame and it had kindled the draperies. The TV was still plugged in so when I turned the water stream onto the fire, the 110 volt AC power made me do the ‘110 volt Samba’. Fortunately I was able to release the hose without being electrocuted.

I ran to the breaker box and killed the power. Back to the window and hose and used the water to extinguish the fire just as the League City Volunteer Fire Department pumper arrived.

Whew! The firefighters in a very professional and courteous manner confirmed that I was OK and the fire was out. They carried the low table with the remains of the TV onto the porch, turned the power back on and left me to my cleanup.

The thermostat for the air conditioner was in the hallway directly outside Britany’s room and the heat from the fire assured that the A/C was on full blast. The air return sucked up the sooty smoke and blew it throughout the house. Every horizontal surface had soot and every fiber product was sooty. It was a disaster!

I called Kathy, apologized for not answering the phone and described the incident. We decided that she should extend her visit while I tried to deal with the insurance an get the house livable. This was an ordeal in itself.

As young marrieds with two small children: Britany, 4 and Scott, 2, a car payment and a house payment, we had no spare cash. I did just about nothing on Sunday and met the insurance adjuster on Monday. 

The homeowner’s insurance would cover the damage, less the deductible, which we clearly couldn’t pay, so I cut a deal that I would do the painting myself in lieu of paying the deductible.

The insurance company sent a company called Smoke Odor Removal to do the soot cleanup. They were amazing! They removed everything fiber that had soot, cleaned it, returned it and put it back where it came from. This included cleaning the shag carpet we had selected when we built the house. They also cleaned the windows, window frames, cupboards, paneling - everything but the walls and ceilings.

Meanwhile, I tackled the painting chore. This was before Killz so I used shellac to seal the soot, Otherwise, the soot would seep through the latex wall paint.

Then I got onto the painting chore. My mom and dad joined me and gave me three days of hard work and for them I am forever grateful.

The painting ordeal was going on during the 72 Olympics and I had the TV on in the background. Mark Spitz kept being mentioned and I thought they were doing replays. No - he was stacking up a bunch of medals.

I guess it took about a week to get the house habitable for Kathy and the children. It was good to have them home. The swing set was not a good design and did not persist.