Village of Belvedere homeowner Donna Austin is just grateful to be alive after lightning struck her home around shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday. Lightning from a fast-moving storm targeted her roof in the Cherry Hill Villas for a direct hit. Austin was relaxing at home at the time.
“I actually heard the lightning hit the roof,” Austin said, “it was very close to where I was sitting. It was burning up in the attic, and when I opened a door right away to check on a noise, there were big flames in the closet too.
“Of course my phone didn’t work to call the fire department, so I ran screaming down the street ‘my house is on fire, my house is on fire — call 911!’ Several neighbors are away, but finally my neighbor, Jackie Preston, heard me and called the fire department.”
Appearing surprisingly calm despite her ordeal, Austin noted some blistering to the proximal villas’ vinyl siding on both sides of her home. She and her neighbors credit The Villages Public Safety Department’s rapid arrival with preventing the fire from spreading to other villas.
“We had just had a large magnolia tree taken out of the courtyard,” Austin added , pointing to the stump on the ground. “It’s a lucky thing the tree was removed, because if it had caught on fire, it could have spread sparks and fire all over.”
She said firefighters arrived within minutes.
“The flames were huge, shooting out the roof — they must have been as high as 14 or 15 feet,” said neighbor David Moon. “That was really a very close call — the lightning could have struck her. Donna’s really lucky to be alive.”
Austin was happy to see her prized mural, painted on her courtyard wall, was not destroyed. There were some smudges from the smoke, but it looked salvageable.
“Donna is always a very positive person,” Moon said. “She always sees the best side of things.”
Some of her antiques were destroyed, and most furniture was charred, but she found a few ceramic keepsakes that survived the fire.
Damage was extensive to most of the structure — the lanai, living and dining areas and a back bedroom. The roof was burned through, and the kitchen and a front bedroom were waterlogged and flooded.
“I’ve had four neighbors already offer to have me stay with them,” Austin remarked. “People in The Villages are very kind and giving.”
Neighbors were coming by with coolers to preserve food from Austin’s refrigerator, and a crew was already on the scene to board up the burned-out windows.
“This was very scary,” Austin said. “I can’t believe it happened. I lost a lot of things — but everything is going to be OK.”
