{"id":292666,"date":"2026-06-02T03:51:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T03:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292666\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T03:51:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T03:51:39","slug":"lightning-strike-destroys-fort-pierce-womans-home-leaves-her-displaced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292666\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning strike destroys Fort Pierce woman’s home, leaves her displaced"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 A Fort Pierce woman is displaced and calling for help after a lightning strike tore through her home, leaving her with broken windows, heavy damage, and almost nothing left.<\/p>\n

Last month, Rosa Rivera returned home from getting a haircut at church, a utility worker stopped her outside.<\/p>\n

WATCH WPTV’S COVERAGE BELOW:<\/p>\n

Fort Pierce woman displaced after lightning strike destroys her home, loses irreplaceable belongings<\/p>\n

“When I go back home, I see, the utility guy tells me, hey \u2014 I think your house is on fire,” Rivera said.<\/p>\n

St. Lucie County District Firefighters rushed to put out the flames. Rivera was told a lightning strike caused the fire.<\/p>\n

Walking into her damaged home left her stunned. “I was in shock, I’m thinking that’s just a dream, but no, it’s reality,” Rivera said.<\/p>\n

Rivera lost clothes, furniture and irreplaceable personal belongings \u2014 including photos of her late son. “My son’s pictures. My son passed away three years ago,” Rivera said.<\/p>\n

The damage left Rivera displaced. She is uninsured and is now staying at her nephew’s home while she rebuilds. “I’m truly grateful for him,” Rivera said.”Because without him, I don’t know where I would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivera, who is also disabled, was recovering from neck fusion surgery the same week she lost her home. “It’s a lot that I’m dealing with. It’s very, very overwhelming,” Rivera said.<\/p>\n

A memorial outside the damaged home is one of the few things Rivera has left that cannot be replaced.<\/p>\n

Despite everything, Rivera said she is holding onto one thing: gratitude that she was not inside when the fire broke out.<\/p>\n

“It’s a blessing that I was not home,” Rivera said. “And I was in a safe place instead of being at home to where something could’ve possibly happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe has been set up<\/a> to help Rivera rebuild.<\/p>\n

\"REP_CARD_ZITLALI-SOLACHE_DELRAY-BEACH-AND-BOCA-RATON.jpg\"<\/p>\n

WPTV<\/p>\n

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 A Fort Pierce woman is displaced and calling for help after a lightning strike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-292666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}