Lightning blamed for Mongtomery County house fire

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- In the height of the storms that rolled through Thursday evening, one family's home was burning. It was all sparked by a lightning strike at Revelwood near Tamina in Montgomery County.

This isn't the first time the family has had to deal with lightning. Two months ago, lightning struck one of their trees. On Thursday, lightning struck another tree and then jumped to the house.

"I hear a massive pop," 17-year-old Taylor Baumann said.

School work for Tyler and his two younger brothers was abruptly interrupted first by that pop and then by fire.

"Fifteen seconds later, we just could smell smoke. We didn't have smoke in the house but we could smell it and we looked out the window and all of a sudden, it was just billowing smoke outside," he said.

The boys, who are homeschooled, and their mother quickly got out as flames engulfed the attic, right above Taylor's room. Lightning had struck.

"It was very hot. We had to put a lot of water on it," Taylor's father, Frank Baumann, said.

The room and half of the house is now a soggy mess. The waterlogged ceilings have started to cave in on the wood floors Baumann laid himself.

Renovating the home has been a constant project ever since the family moved in three years ago.

"We've put a lot of work into the house and then when something like this happens, it's kind of deflating. But I count my blessings that my family was OK. Everybody got out of the house, dogs got out of the house, and everybody's fine," Frank said.

The family has strong faith and a strong support system from their church. Many of them were out Thursday night to help the Baumanns.

The family plans on staying with friends and hotels until they can get back into the house, which likely won't be for another six months.

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local, jessica willey

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