Southeast Valley home destroyed by lightning-caused fire during monsoon storm

Pinal County officials are investigating an overnight house fire that started during strong lightning storms in the Queen Creek/San Tan Valley area.

Lightning reportedly struck a home's roof near Hunt Highway and Empire Boulevard around 10:30 Thursday night.

ABC15 received multiple videos showing flames erupting from the home.

On Friday morning, video from the scene showed the blaze had been extinguished, but the home was extensively damaged.

Rural Metro Fire officials say crews spent six hours at the scene working to control the blaze. A roof collapse caused problems for firefighters inside, who were then forced out of the home.

No one was injured during the destructive fire, and ABC15 crews at the scene are told the residents were out of town at the time.

Pamela Crawford, who lives next door to the affected home says the storm was like something out of a movie, “All of a sudden, the storm came through. Lightning everywhere. Crazy. And then we heard this huge crack, and I even screamed out. It was so loud."

She says that was the sound of lightning striking her neighbor’s home, but she didn’t know it yet, “Shortly thereafter, a neighbor, that neighbor up there, he came and woke us up. You know,  knocked on the door and everything and said that the house was on fire next door,” added Crawford.

That neighbor was Jose Colazo.

“My first instinct was to get in there and make sure nobody was in there. You know, we talk to all these neighbors so I’m pretty sure they would have done the same for us,” he said.

Jennifer Boultinghouse says even she felt the impact of the strike, and she lives about one mile away, “The house lit up when the thunder clapped, the whole house shook. The blaze was so intense we could see the orange glow from this house."

While the home is destroyed, Crawford says she was able to get one thing out.“There was a few pieces of their artwork in this little box, and it was the ashes of their dog that they had lost last year, and it was the only thing that survived,” said Crawford.

Thankfully no one was home.

Strong storms pushed through the southeast Valley Thursday night, bringing wind, thick dust, and lightning.

Some storm damage to roofing and fences was also seen in the area.