Lightning Strikes Rose Avenue Home, ‘Explodes’ Ridge Beam

A bolt of lightning crashed into a tree on the 4200 block of Rose Avenue at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night before jumping into the roof of a residential home, causing a violent blast that tore a ridge beam in three and sprayed drywall across a third-floor studio.

The electric strike first hit a honey locust tree adjacent to the Gumina residence, leaving a jagged and twisted scar in the bark, then travelled into and split the beam at the home’s apex, causing even the roof’s shingles to leap outwards.

“It sounded like a bomb went off,” said resident Lynn Gumina. “We were just sitting on the couch in the family room, and all this bark, white-hot, started raining from the sky all around the house… We started to smell smoke, came [upstairs] and discovered our ridge beam had exploded—it shot drywall all over the third floor.”

The house was smoking, but not aflame—something Gumina credited in part to the pouring rain in the fierce flash thunderstorm. However, she said a Western Springs firefighter’s thermal camera showed that several of the home’s appliances, like the thermostat, were burning hot from the strike.

personnel responded to the scene between their . Deputy Chief Gary Mayor said that the two events were the only major incidents resulting from the thunderstorm.

“God bless them” Gumina said of the firefighters. “In the rain and the dark, they went up on my roof—and my roof is steep—to put a tarp up to keep us from getting wet.”

Gumina estimated that the damage was “in the thousands of dollars,” but there were no injuries—save to the psyche of the family Welsh Springer Spaniel, Maggie, who remained a bit anxious a day after the strike.