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LYNNFIELD, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — It was the lightning strike heard 'round the world, or rather, heard around Lynnfield.
Residents took to social media to post about a loud bang heard in the early hours of the morning Friday, that ended up being the sound of lightning striking a tree at a nearby home.
Mike Smith, who lives in the Oxbow Road house where the lightning struck, told WBZ's Kendall Buhl it sounded like a bomb had gone off.
"I knew right away that we had been struck by lightning because of the thunder and then the boom," Smith said. "When I saw a flash of light I knew what it was, but I just didn't know bad it was going to be."
Turns out this strike started a chain reaction. Smith said the bolt split the tree in half and then followed the roots and blew a trench between the tree and his home. The shock then traveled into the home and destroyed several windows before ultimately sparking a fire in the oven in Smith's kitchen. Luckily for the Smiths, the fire department was able to minimize the damage from the blaze.
Lynnfield Fire Chief Glenn Davis said the fire could have been a lot worse.
"The fire was gas-fed in the rear of the stove," Davis said. "We were able to pull [the stove] out and turn off the gas to the house which essentially put the fire out. We flowed very little water on the property at all so we were fortunate and the homeowners were fortunate."
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The Smiths are out of their home for now, but Cheif Davis said they will be able to return sometime soon.
WBZ's Kendall Buhl (@WBZKendall) reports.
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