Lightning Strike Damages Westboro Home
WESTBORO (CBS) – A lightning strike damaged a house in Westboro overnight.
As severe thunderstorms rolled through MetroWest, Lowell Ackerman, his wife and daughter were asleep in their home on Hundreds Road.
Then a bolt of lightning struck around 3 a.m. The explosion woke them all up, but no one was hurt.
Windows in the back of the home were blown out and a large tree was torn apart.
Ackerman said he first thought a truck was going through his front yard.
The lightning didn't strike the house or cause a fire, but it did knock out the power.
"(The fire department) thought that either it hit the tree and traveled along the roots to the (electrical) box or it hit the box and traveled under to the tree, but it really sounded more like an explosion," Ackerman told reporters.
National Grid is going to send a team out to the home to assess the damage, Ackerman said.
"I'm thinking it's going to take a while to get it all cleaned up," he added.
Part of the tree landed in Patrick O'Donnell's yard.
"That piece of lumber in the backyard is about 18 inches off from the wall of my house. If that thing would have went through my house, you know, I got little kids sleeping upstairs, -- it turned out OK," said O'Donnell.
The neighbors are taking the incident in stride, though.
"I should probably play the lottery today," said O'Donnell.
"It's stuff. Stuff can be fixed. Stuff can be replaced," said Ackerman.