Here are those pictures/videos I promised!
One Friday this past July, my husband took the children out to the porch to watch a monsoon. A few minutes later they saw - actually saw! - lightning strike a palm tree in our neighborhood's common area. The tree caught fire immediately, from top to bottom.
My husband was on the phone with 911 within ten seconds. This video was taken about 2-3 minutes after the strike.
The second video, below, was taken just a minute or so later. The strong winds quickly spread the fire to surrounding trees, and within a matter of seconds we had a mini-firestorm on our hands. I have never seen a fire spread so quickly.
Thankfully the rains started almost immediately, which helped to slow the fire's spread. I don't know what would have happened without the rain, because this was one mean fire. Even with the rain the fire stayed intense, and our neighbors (directly behind the trees) sustained substantial minor damage from scorched car paint and burned patio furniture. Garden hoses did nothing to stem the blaze.
The fire department arrived about one minute after this video was taken.
We've been next to a lightning strike before, which was frightening, but being that it struck a metal carport, there was no fire. This was a completely different story! Yikes.
That is AMAZING!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it ended as well as it did.
Yes, we were very thankful for rain and a prompt fire department. It definitely would have turned even uglier without those factors involved!! :)
DeleteWow! Great video footage. So glad the palm tree took the hit, and not something (or someone) else!
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed!!
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