WESTLAKE, Texas — One firefighter was injured responding to a lightning-sparked fire at a large home in Westlake on Monday night, officials said. Around the same time, a different lightning strike struck a North Texas pallet yard, causing a fire there as well.
The firefighter in Westlake is expected to be OK, and no other injuries were reported.
This fire happened Monday at a home in the 1800 block of Broken Bend Drive in Westlake, a small community along Texas 114 north of Keller.
Firefighters from Southlake, Grapevine, Keller and North Richland Hills responded to the fire and found smoke and flames coming from the roof.
Everyone inside the home made it safely outside. While the structure of the home was badly damaged, firefighters were able to put the fire out and protect several of the residents' valued belongings, officials said in a news release.
About an hour south of Westlake is Alvarado in Johnson County. On Monday around 9:45 p.m., some Alvarado neighbors noticed flames coming from a pallet yard in the area that was likely caused by a lightning strike.
Lynn Dykes, who lives next door to the business, said winds were blowing the flames away from his home initially, but the storm quickly switched directions.
“The gentleman next door had taken his family to a different location, and I look at his house and noticed it was on fire in the back so we went over there to put that out," Dykes said.
Dykes said high winds then started to pick up. Dykes and his neighbors were under a tornado warning. He said he was so focused on putting out the fire on his neighbor’s property that the warning didn’t phase him.
“I’ve experienced fires before, but nothing so personal," Dykes said. "Everything I have is in that house."
Dykes said he remembers powerful winds and a lot of hail. He thought if the flames didn’t take his house, a possible tornado would.
As the sun rose Tuesday morning, aerial footage showed the carnage left behind by the fire, with a large section of the home's roof badly damaged.
Here is helicopter footage of the area (fast forward to the 50:00 mark in the live stream for aerials):
Dykes said he credits the firefighters for saving his property, just separated by a fence from the pallet yard.
“The Rendon Fire Department was stationed in my backyard, and they saved my home," Dykes said. " At one point, they said I don’t know if we’re going to be able to save it. And then a foam truck pulls up and sprays foam everywhere, and that’s what saved my house. Otherwise, we’d be looking at a pile of rubble."
Dyke’s daughter, Shelby, didn’t hear from her father for several hours overnight. In the morning, she drove from Fort Worth to check on her family. She spent a lot of her childhood at this home and said she’s always worried something like this could happen.
“It’s wood," Shelby said. "It’s made to burn so it has always been a fear of mine. If it came down to it, we could have replaced the house, and I couldn’t replace him or my cousin or my great-uncle that lives here.” She said guardian angels were watching over her loved ones.
The lightning fire happened as strong storms were rolling through North Texas on Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
While damage was still being assessed Tuesday morning, radar detected a tornado in Johnson County, near Egan, where one man was injured after an RV was flipped by the storm. The man was helping his stepdaughter to safety.
Damage was also seen in Collin County near the town of Blue Ridge. The National Weather Service was sending survey crews to those areas, as well as near Midlothian in Ellis County, to assess the damage.