North Texas family had a fire break out after lightning struck their home during Monday's storms
VENUS, Texas - A North Texas family is trying to recover after a lightning strike started a fire in their home.
Severe weather was possible Monday night in the skies over Venus, in Johnson County, but that family had no idea what would happen next.
"Lightning could hit the house, but you don’t think you’re going to have a house fire because of it," Alyssa Rossler said.
Severe weather hit home, literally, for Rossler and her family.
"I heard a loud, sounded like a bomb, honestly," she recalled.
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She was in her upstairs bedroom. Her parents were downstairs.
"My whole room lit up, that’s how close the lighting hit on top of window, basically, and sparks came out of the outlets in my room," she recalled.
Seconds later, neighbors were outside yelling for them to get out because the house was on fire.
"My husband was trying to get our animals out, and at that point, the fire alarm started going off and we could see the house starting to fill with smoke," Michele Rossler recalled.
They quickly rounded up their three dogs, which had run to hide underneath beds, and everyone got out safe.
"Some people brought us clothes that night because we were soaking wet, had no shoes," Michele said.
Two days after the sudden and frightening ordeal, they are back to deal with the damage and chart what will be a long recovery.
"It’s pretty much a total loss, we’re not able to live here," Michele said.
They’ve lost a lot, just not their perspective.
"We’re all very thankful that it was not worse than it could’ve been, that we got out in time. We got our dogs out in time. Everything in there we can replace, those are just things," Alyssa added.