WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. – A woman is homeless after strong storms sparked a fire that ripped through her home Monday evening.
"The lightning was like in stereo and it sounded like glass exploding all around the house," said Al Heath, who lives a block away from the fire on Pearl Drive in Winter Springs, but still felt his house shake. "It was just a lightning strike like I'd never seen before."
Lois Edmunds, 72, said the massive bolt of lightning punched a hole through her roof, and in minutes fire ripped through her house, engulfing it.
"I grabbed my purse, my dog and my car. That's all I got," said Edmunds, who said she knew immediately what happened. "A bolt of fire just hit in the kitchen and it threw out the lights and the TV and I thought that's all it did. Then I started smelling something. I said to the dog, I said, 'Jake, I think we've been hit.'"
In a flash, roughly 25 years of memories were gone.
Edmunds ushered her dog to the door, just in time to turn around and see her house in flames.
"It feels terrible. Absolutely terrible," said Edmunds, as she sat across the street while firefighters put out the fire. "That's all I have over there. Probably don't have anything anymore, except for my dog."
Edmunds spent the night with her daughter, but she said she's unsure what she'll do next.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but firefighters are confident it was sparked by lightning.