HAVERHILL, MASS. (WHDH) - Lightning struck a home in Haverhill Friday, burning part of the structure’s top floor while a series of storms rolled through the region.
The lightning strike happened on Mahoney Way Friday evening.
Inside, the Gosselin family was watching TV together.
“The lightning was crazy,” said homeowner Arthur Gosselin. “It was going for like 20 minutes, just constant and then it just hit us.”
“It’s a devastating loss,” said family member Paige Gosselin.
Emily Gosselin said she heard a loud bang as lightning hit the house.
“I didn’t even know our house got struck and then our TV went out,” she said.
Arthur said he saw some sparks and ran up to the attic to find it was on fire.
The family made it out of the home safely and stood together watching flames tear through the top floor of their house.
“It’s our childhood home, everything’s in it and we were home,” Emily said. “Thank God we got out safe but very, very distraught and overwhelming.”
Fire crews arrived quickly to fight the flames as the storm around them raged on.
“It gets you nervous because you have ladders and metal and steel and, right in the background, you have lightning and heavy heavy rain coming down,” said Haverhill Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Akstin. “So, the conditions definitely put a challenge to things.”
Speaking with 7NEWS, the Gosselin family said it was the memories lost in the charred remains of their home of 15 years that still hurt Friday evening.
“All of our memories, they’re gone,” Emily said.
Asked if the family were able to grab anything on their way out, Emily responded “Everything happened so fast.”
“It’s better to have us than have those memories,” Paige said.
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