Day 203 - A 4th to Remember!

So, I did not get to blog yesterday as I did not have internet access after an afternoon storm at our house.  I had just finished editing some pictures and moving them to my external hard drive, flickr, and two DVD's for safe keeping.  While they were loading into their various places, I went back to put away some laundry.  A nice, quiet day off.  :)  

Matt was in the living room - having just finished working out.  He's a P90X man when he doesn't go to the gym.  

The sky was very black and it was raining hard.  All of a sudden the house was filled with light and a very loud 'CRACK' was heard.  The smoke detector was going off.  

Was our house just struck by lightning?!?

I did not smell smoke, so I hit the hush button on the smoke detector and Matt and I tried to get our bearings. Neither of us panicked - but we were just really caught off guard.

He went outside to see where the house had been hit and to make sure we were not on fire.  I saw from the window that a tree had been hit.  Matt came back in and was a little tense.  The lightning struck 2 trees right next to our propane tank and the tank was making a weird noise.  I could hear it from inside the house.  

I quickly shut off the valve for the propane to the house.  We called our propane company to find out what to do and left a message for the answering service.  We waited 5 minutes and no one called us.  Matt went outside and our neighbor said he could smell propane.  We called them again.  After 5 minutes and the smell of propane began to permeate the house, we called 911.  They advised that we leave the house and they would send the fire department to help us out. 

While I had the wits to turn off the gas line to the house, Matt was wise enough to know not to start the car in a sea of propane.  So, we walked in the rain to our neighbor's house a good ways away.  We took the dog and left the cats to fend for themselves.  But we did lock them in the bedroom at the opposite end of the house from where the tank is.

It struck me as we were walking away that I was not carrying anything.  I have always been afraid of a fire and I always have a plan in case of one.  Here I was, wondering if our house was going to blow up and I did not take anything with me.  Not my camera.  Not my external hard drive with all of my pictures.  Not my laptop.  Nothing.  

It was not long at all (less than 5 minutes) when the first volunteer fireman showed up.  Not long after that there were THREE fire engines at our house.  Only one made the sharp turn and went up the bumpy driveway to assess the situation.  Poor guy had to back down out of the driveway - there is no room to turn around in our driveway for a rig that big.  Thankfully, the other two and the rescue squad stayed in the road at the bottom of the driveway (I could see all of this from the neighbor's house - Matt had ran back over to talk with them.)

The first fireman said he could smell the propane when he turned into the driveway.  Yeesh.

The best we can figure is that the lightning struck one tree, the current then traveled underground severing the propane line, and then traveled back up another tree.  

The heat from the lightning caused an increase in pressure in the propane tank to the extent that it blew it's relief valve.  That was the noise we were hearing. 

They shut off the tank and said we'd be fine.  Later, a guy from the propane company came out and did a more thorough exploration of the house and furnace and actually disconnected the line and sealed the tank.  

After it stopped raining, I went out to take some pics.  :)

This first one is me standing in our side yard.  Where I'm standing is where a piece of tree had been blasted.  You can see the two affected trees.

This pic shows the proximity to the propane tank (shudder) and it suffered 3 separate stripes of bark blow-out.  I actually put my hand on it and said "I'm sorry."  Poor tree.  It's going to die and have to come down. 

Lightning Marks.

Tree shrapnel.  It extended almost all the way to the end of our deck.  Which is LONG.  CRAZY!!!!! 

There's a lot of power in that lightning stuff.  Look out. 

I am so beyond thankful that we are ok.  I'm also so beyond thankful that our computer and external hard drive are ok.  All of my pictures could have been lost.  I would have been so sad.  :( 

But they are ok.  And we are ok.  But our Wii is toast - as are several other electronics.  No biggie. 

:)