{"id":347039,"date":"2026-07-21T08:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T08:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347039\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T08:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T08:45:11","slug":"florida-family-narrowly-escapes-lightning-strike-i-just-started-running-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347039\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida family narrowly escapes lightning strike: ‘I just started running’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brief<\/p>\n

A lightning strike hit just across the street as a Kissimmee mother unloaded her children from the car.<\/p>\n

The strike briefly ignited a fire and damaged a neighbor’s gutter, but no one was hurt.<\/p>\n

The mother said the close call gave her “a new respect” for thunderstorms and lightning.<\/p>\n

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – A Kissimmee woman said she and her children narrowly escaped injury after a lightning strike hit a neighbor’s yard while she was unloading her vehicle during a storm.<\/p>\n

Ring camera footage captured the moment.<\/p>\n

‘Run for your life’<\/p>\n

What they’re saying<\/p>\n

The lightning struck across the street as Jessika Gonzalez was helping her children out of the car.<\/p>\n

“The loudest thunder I’ve ever heard,” Gonzalez said. “I didn’t want to look that way because I was so scared.”<\/p>\n

Gonzalez said she felt the force of the strike even though it hit across the street.<\/p>\n

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP<\/a><\/p>\n

“Felt like someone shocked me, pretty much. And it felt like some sparks and the heat from that fire,” she said.<\/p>\n

She immediately rushed her family to safety.<\/p>\n

“I just started running. I’m like, ‘Run for your life,'” Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

The lightning strike ignited a brief fire in the neighbor’s yard and cracked a gutter, but the flames quickly went out, and the home was not seriously damaged.<\/p>\n

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“It lit on fire, and then it just like went away,” Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez said the experience changed the way she views severe weather.<\/p>\n

“I have a new respect for thunderstorms, lightning,” she said. “I don’t want to be outside when it’s raining, thundering, none of that.”<\/p>\n

The Source<\/p>\n

This story was written based on information shared by Jessika Gonzalez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief A lightning strike hit just across the street as a Kissimmee mother unloaded her children from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,142065,90029],"class_list":["post-347039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jessika-gonzalez","tag-lightning-strike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347039","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=347039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}