Apparent lightning strike sets Old Bridge Township, N.J., home on fire during torrential storms
By Jesse Zanger, Naveen Dhaliwal
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OLD BRIDGE TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (WCBS) — Lightning apparently struck a home and sparked a fire in New Jersey amid torrential storms Thursday.
It happened in Old Bridge Township around 3 p.m.
Two women who live in the home managed to escape with their four dogs, but one woman said her three pet birds, who were in cages, did not survive.
“I said to myself, that’s really close. I didn’t feel it like some people did, but I heard it – bang,” neighbor John Johnson said.
Johnson said police pounded on his front door, and let him know that the neighboring building was on fire.
“And I heard the door being beat on. I ran downstairs and the police officers was there,” he said. “He said, ‘Your neighbor’s on fire. Get ready to get out of here.’ I went upstairs and put on some clothes and came outside.”
One of the women who lives in the home that was struck said just about everything inside was destroyed.
Flash flooding also causing problems Thursday’s heavy rains caused flash flooding in some parts of New Jersey.
Some of the locations are not far from areas that endured torrential flooding earlier this week.
Click here for the latest storm watches, warnings, alerts and advisories. In Hazlet, heavy rain came down fast, leaving a car stranded in high water.
“My street was flooded. That subsided. It took, like, maybe 30 minutes,” Hazlet resident Wayne Szaro said.
“Cars were coming through. They were plowing through it. It was submerging over their hood,” Hazlet resident Joe Bennett said. “It was eventually somebody was going to come through and was going to get stuck.”
In South River, streets quickly filled up as storm drains were overwhelmed, and water took over a local park, spilling across fields and surrounding areas.
There were also reports of flooding in New Brunswick and Keyport.
Thunder rolled and rain pelted cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, slowing traffic even more during rush hour, and in Edison, video showed Route 1 completely flooded out.
Local officials say they spent the day cleaning clogged storm drains. Some homeowners said they got water in their basements, but for the most part, the water subsided by Thursday night without any significant damage.
Rain totals piling up As of 5 p.m. Thursday, there had already been significant rainfall in New Jersey.
CBS News New York’s Lonnie Quinn said the rain had been coming down in “buckets.”
– Kendall Park picked up 4.83 inches – New Brunswick got 3.05 inches – Dayton got 2.83 inches – Skillman picked up 2.4 inches – Rutgers Gardens got 2.05 inches
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