Lightning in Frisco causes 2 homes to burn – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Neighborhoods across the city of Frisco are cleaning up after morning storms brought 1.25-inch hail, damaging winds and lightning.

Two homes in the Hollyhock subdivision caught fire after lightning struck. The bright explosion around 7:24 a.m. occurred just after Michael Youseff took out the trash, assuming they were in the clear.

“As soon as I walk in, big bam,” he described.

Jeny Harding, her husband and young daughter huddled together in a closet earlier in the morning after hearing emergency sirens blaring outside.

The city sounded sirens due to hail and high winds.

She also thought the storm had passed by 7:30 a.m. and she was having her morning when it happened.

“It was extremely noisy. It sounded like a transformer explosion,” she said. “Not once in a million years did we think this was going to happen.”

Harding says she then started smelling smoke and went outside to find her neighbor's house on fire.

Youseff also ran with a garden hose to help fight the flames until firefighters arrived within five minutes.

Harding began to comfort his neighbors who all came out safely.

“As I was comforting her, I saw that my house was on fire so we had to run to my house to get my baby out,” she said.

The city measured wind gusts of up to 80 miles per hour at the height of the storm.

High winds caused falling trees, tree branches and debris to be scattered throughout neighborhoods.

A large tree branch broke and tore through Kate Shepard's home near 121 and Coit Road.

The pregnant mother gathered her two children and began scrambling to find plastic bins to catch the water that was gushing into her living room.

“I heard a loud bang and thought it was the back door,” Shepard said. “I jumped out of bed, met my daughter and heard water gushing and we see water running through the ceiling above the boxes and shelves, so I have a little panicked.”

Shepard spent the day cleaning up a soggy mess, happy that her family wasn't hurt.

Frisco firefighters responded to downed power lines and debris blocking roads. They also rescued someone from an elevator in an apartment complex.

No injuries were reported during this storm.

Firefighters from Little Elm and Prosper helped extinguish the house fires.

Harding is working with his insurance company to assess the damage, but keeping everything in perspective.

“As long as we’re safe, none of that matters,” she said. “We can rebuild.”