I would like to share an event that forever changed our family.
 
Our home burned down in May of 2016. It was a Tuesday around 5:45 pm and it was storming. My husband, son, his friend, and I were home. We heard a lightning strike and I thought to myself that the strike was close to us. A few minutes later my son and his friend came into the bedroom where I was and told me they smelled smoke. I immediately went to the family room and saw and smelled the smoke. I went and opened the front door and all I could see was black smoke. I yelled for my son and his friend to go the garage and get in the car so we could get out of the house. I did not even have time to put my shoes on. My husband went upstairs to see if he could put the fire out, but he felt the door and it was hot, so he did not open the door. He then left the house. We called 911 and the fire department came, but the fire department just watched to house burn. At the time, we did not know why.  Eventually they put foam and water on the fire. Our home was destroyed. We lost everything. The insurance adjuster came the next day and they had a fire inspector come to the house.  The city also had an inspector come investigate the fire. After a few days, we learned the cause of the fire was a lighting strike that blew many holes in our CSST tubing. The fire investigators pulled to tubing and showed it to us. We had no idea this could happen. We lost so many family treasures which had been passed down to us from our parents which cannot be replaced. My sons lost everything. We lost precious family photos. The fire caused great distress on my family. The stress of finding a place to live, starting over again, getting basic necessities, buying clothes, getting medicine, and trying to make our lives function for ourselves and our children was a daunting task. We spent days and days going through the soot and ash looking for anything to salvage. Then came the many hours spent with paperwork to list all we lost. This task took almost a year to complete. Our lives changed forever. Thank goodness we were all awake. It scares me every time I think about what would have happened if we were all asleep. — Randall and Carol Hughes