BIXBY, Okla. — A Bixby family is now without a home after they believe lightning struck their home overnight.
The fire happened in a neighborhood near 151st Street and Harvard around 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
Dan Harrington, his wife, their two daughters, and the family dog were all woken up around 3 a.m. by a loud boom. The boom turned out to be a lightning strike.
Following the noise, their power went out. Nothing else happened so the family went back to bed. 30 minutes later, one of the daughters heard the smoke detectors and woke up her parents. Dan looked out and saw flames pouring out of their house.
"I could see this orange color that was cast upon the fence pickets in my backyard. So I was like oh my gosh our house is probably on fire, our neighbor’s house I don’t know," Dan recounts. "But because our smoke alarms were going off I just grabbed the kids and I said kids we gotta leave now, we gotta get out now.”
But before the fire crews got there, they had to detour due to construction on the Harvard bridge.
"We did have to take a slight detour, Harvard bridge is being rebuilt so we had to go about a mile and a half out of the way to get here... We’re just thankful that the children and mom and dad were able to get out safely," says Joey Wiedel, Bixby Fire Chief.
The Harringtons got out of the house unharmed but the home is a total loss. They are staying with nearby family. The family says while their house being gone is tragic, they're all okay and everything that was ruined can be replaced.
2 News reached out to Tulsa County to see who is in charge of the Harvard bridge construction and is still waiting for a response.
This is a developing situation. We'll continue to update as we learn more.
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