FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Puget Sound Energy crews were still working late Wednesday night, more than seven hours after a lightning bolt struck a tree in Federal Way. The energy surged through the house next to it, rupturing a gas line and wreaking havoc with the electricity inside.
“I just heard a huge explosion,” neighbor Gloria Flint said. “I thought at first it was thunder, but my husband said no, something exploded.”
Flint was one of several neighbors who were shaken up around 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
“I couldn’t imagine what it was,” she said.
South King Fire and Rescue Captain Tom Batten had never seen anything like it.
“The energy went through the siding and blew out sheet rock on the inside of the house,” he said. “It shook furniture loose in the house, ornaments and pictures of the walls… yeah, it’s crazy.”
Batten said the husband and wife inside weren’t hurt but did smell smoke and reported the lightning strike.
The lightning blew out some of the circuits on the home’s breaker panel and fractured a gas line, filling the home with gas and forcing the couple to leave.
On an image from the KIRO 7 PinPoint Stormtracker, the lightning strikes were clear around Federal Way Wednesday afternoon.
But the strikes weren’t the only severe weather.
A KIRO 7 viewer sent in video of hail in Burlington and another viewer spotted hail in Tacoma.
In Federal Way, Puget Sound Energy went door to door to see if the strike left its mark at other homes.
“We’re checking right now to make sure there’s no damage,” Steve Schueneman with Puget Sound Energy said. “If there was anything else, we’re going to find it tonight.”
Batten said the house is structurally fine, though it does not have gas or electricity. Even after the gas line is replaced, he said it’s unclear how bad the damage is to the wiring inside, as well as appliances.
The couple that lives there, Batten said, is staying elsewhere with family.