United States (Texas) - As storms rolled through north and south of Royse City the evening of June 10 and morning of June 11, Royse City Volunteer Fire Department and Fate Volunteer Fire Department were called to aid in two separate house fires, each set by lightning, authorities say.

Thursday morning lightning triggered a fire which basically destroyed a house in McLendon-Chisholm. Royse City and Fate volunteer Fire departments assisted, with Fate's assistant chief Brian Griffeth investigating.

The call came in about 7:35 a.m., according to McLendon-Chisholm VFD chief Skippy Waters, and it took most of the day to extinguish fully.

"We probably didn't get off the fire until 3:30 or 4 that evening," Waters said.

No one was injured, and no one was at home at the time of the fire, according to reports.

Much of the afternoon Thursday was spent dealing with items smoldering in the garage, upon which the second floor had caved.

Rockwall County road and bridge department brought vehicles to help remove the items from the garage so the fire department members could spray the foam on them.

"It was a big house -- the top floor caved in on the garage," Waters said, as to why the long day. "It led to a lot of problems to get that stuff out that was smoldering. We called county to come pull all of the contents out of garage to put foam on it to not kindle."

The firemen were OK, but tired, he said.

Lighting was still frequent as they fought the blaze that morning, Waters said. "While we were there trying to put the fire out, we almost got hit by lightning," he said. Lightning struck a tree trunk on the next lot, and turned the tree black, he said. "I felt it in my chest."

Royse City had responded also on Wednesday night to aid Nevada Volunteer Fire Department to extinguish a fire in Lavon, started by a lightning strike. Royse City chief Ricky Bell said damage was not considered major on that fire.

Written by Royse City Herald-Banner