The moment lightning strikes Miami-Dade home, sparking fire

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A man’s doorbell camera caught the moment lightning struck his southwest Miami-Dade County home, sparking a fire on its roof.

It all happened Monday afternoon at Emmanuel Cobb’s home in the 22600 block of Southwest 109th Court.

“I just heard a loud bang,” Cobb said. “I knew it struck close, but I didn’t know it struck the house itself.”

Cobb said the lights flickered off and on and he soon heard firefighters banging on his door, telling him to get out. He quickly learned that the lightning struck his roof, catching it on fire.

“All I saw was smoke,” he said.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews quickly doused the flames using their ladder truck and no one was hurt. The lightning left a scar on Cobb’s roof, however: our Local 10 Drone camera spotted barrel tile shingles shattered.

Ad

Fire officials said this is the time of year when lightning strikes more frequently.

“It’s something that we run on very often, lightning strikes on roofs,” MDFR Battalion Chief Ivan Garcia said. “If we don’t get here quickly, they usually become big fires, but we have units very closely to the majority of our neighborhoods and get (there) quickly and knock it out before it becomes a big problem.”