Florida Septic Tank Hit By Lightning, Toilet Explodes

PORT CHARLOTTE (CBSMiami) - You don't see this every day.

A lightning strike which hit a septic tank at a Port Charlotte home caused a toilet to explode.

The explosion did a significant amount of damage to the home. Homeowner Marylou Ward and her husband told WINK the blast shattered the toilet in a hundred pieces, shattered the master bedroom window, destroyed the indoor plumbing along with the septic tank.

Ward said a plumber told her the lightning hit the methane gases from fecal matter built up in the pipes. Ward said she thought the house was on fire.

"We smelled smoke and I looked outside," Ward told WINK. "It was the smoke from the septic tank that was coming."

The Ward family are still finding pieces of broken yard decorations across the property and in the street.

Gratefully, nobody was hurt.

"I'm just glad none of us were on the toilet," Ward said. "That's the main thing."