APOPKA, Fla. (WSVN) — A sudden lightning strike sparked flames inside a mobile home in Central Florida that forced a woman and her daughter to make a fire escape.
The blast from the sky left behind charred residue at Kimberly Mondragon’s home, Thursday afternoon.
“I just heard a ‘boom boom,’ said Mondragon.
But the noise wasn’t fireworks; it was a bolt of lightning that struck the mobile home in Orange County where Mondragon lives with her daughter Bianca and their roommate Connie Cob.
“I just got a little upset. I was crying because the house was on fire,” said Bianca.
Mondragon and her daughter ran out. Cob, who had been sitting outside, said she was struck.
“It was like an electric shock just going through your body,” she said. “It was so bad, and my phone fell out of my hands.”
Paramedics checked Cob out in an ambulance, as fire crews rushed to the home, but not before the back end of the trailer and a room both caved in.
“Very scary, very dramatic. I didn’t know what to do, what to say,” said Mondragon. “I was speechless; the only thing I could do was cry.”
Neighbor Scott Holsonback said he was outside across the street when the lightning hit.
“Bam! It hit, and I thought it was like right here. It sounded like an Abrams tank firing off,” he said. “I mean, it was ‘boom.’ It shook the house.”
Neighbor James Moffett was inside his house, but he said the flash was so powerful, it lit up the inside of his room.
“My wife, she hates lightning, she screamed. I mean, ‘Ahhhh,’ I mean, really,” he said.
The neighborhood is now bracing for more thunderstorms.
Mondragon doesn’t know what that will mean for her home.
“Once the insurance clears, we’ll know more about what’s our next step, but right now, it’s up in the air,” she said.
The American Red Cross is in contact with the family and offering support.
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