PLUM, Pa. -- A
slow-moving thunderstorm that flooded parts of the Pittsburgh region and prompted a tornado warning also produced a lightning strike that burned a Plum family's house.
Video:
'Scary' Lightning Strike Sparks Huge Plum FireThe bolt that sparked a fully engulfed fire Wednesday night at John and Kelly Coxon's home on Pin Oak Court was just one of what WTAE's Weather Watch 4 meteorologists said were thousands of lightning strikes throughout southwestern Pennsylvania.
A neighbor who e-mailed a picture of the large blaze to ThePittsburghChannel.com described the Plum lightning strike as a loud "boom" that shook her house.
"It was just scary, very scary, very intense, flames everywhere," neighbor Christine Voss said. "The roof was just completely gone."
"She said, 'That house is smoking.' We were like, 'Oh my God,'" neighbor Lindsay Kadlecik said.
"The whole house shook. The dog was barking. The alarm went off," neighbor Kyle Brinker said.
Photo Slideshow: Storms Slam SW Pa.Amazingly, no injuries were reported.
The Coxons -- who declined an interview -- told WTAE Channel 4's Sheldon Ingram that they and their two children were not home when the lightning hit, but they lost pretty much everything in the fire.
"I felt the heat back here. It was intense," said Brinker, a firefighter. "I knew if somebody was in there, they weren't getting out."
Voss called the scene "very disturbing and scary, because that could have happened to anybody. Just to see that -- my kids were upset. They were panicking."
By 10:30 p.m.,
Duquesne Light had more than 22,400 customers without power, mostly in the neighboring eastern suburbs of Monroeville (3,650), Penn Hills (3,500) and Forest Hills (1,350).
A flash flood warning was in effect for all of Allegheny County until 2 a.m. Thursday. An earlier severe thunderstorm warning was allowed to expire before that.
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