{"id":424671,"date":"2026-09-03T04:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424671\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T04:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:28:11","slug":"lightning-strike-sparks-fire-at-texas-city-home-with-mom-baby-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424671\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning strike sparks fire at Texas City home with mom, baby inside"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lightning \"Lightning Lightning strike fire reports increasing in Galveston County<\/a> <\/p>\n

A Texas City mother shared with FOX 26’s Jillian Hartmann about escaping her home after a lightning strike started a fire. A Santa assistant fire chief also shared tips for homeowners as he says there’s been an increase of lightning-related reports.<\/p>\n

TEXAS CITY, TX – A Texas City family is speaking out after lightning struck their home, sparking a fire and causing extensive damage.<\/p>\n

The fire happened Monday along Sun Coral Drive. The family says the experience was terrifying, but they are thankful no one was hurt.<\/p>\n

Lightning strike causes Texas City fire <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Mia Ortiz says the lightning hit her bedroom while she was there with her 3-month-old son.<\/p>\n

“It was a big flash of light with fire. It\u2019s like I was watching fireworks, literally,” Ortiz said. “It was scary. It was one of the scariest moments for me and my baby.”<\/p>\n

Ortiz said she and her baby were lying in bed when they heard a loud pop and saw the lightning.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve never experienced anything like that before,” she said. “I heard a big pop, a huge pop. I was shocked, in tears.”<\/p>\n

Ortiz grabbed her baby and ran into the kitchen. Moments later, the family noticed smoke coming from the attic and rushed outside.<\/p>\n

“I was just thinking about my family, my baby. I was trying to get out of there because I knew it wasn\u2019t safe,” Ortiz said. “It\u2019s really hard. It\u2019s been really overwhelming.”<\/p>\n

\"\" Power surge prevention <\/p>\n

What you can do:<\/p>\n

Fire officials say they have recently seen an uptick in homes being struck by lightning and causing fires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Victor Boudreaux, assistant chief with the Santa Fe Fire Department, says homeowners can take steps to help protect their homes and electronics from power surges caused by lightning.<\/p>\n

“If you have a surge protector for the whole house, your main electrical panel should have a surge protector that should help alleviate the voltage increase from the lightning strike,” Boudreaux said.<\/p>\n

He also recommends plugging sensitive electronics into individual surge protectors to help prevent damage from a power surge.<\/p>\n

In this case, Ortiz\u2019s family says their home suffered extensive damage and many of their personal belongings were destroyed.<\/p>\n

The family says the community has been very supportive as they work to rebuild their lives.<\/p>\n

The Source: Texas City resident Mia Ortiz and Santa Fe FD Assistant Chief Victor Boudreaux.<\/p>\n

Severe Weather<\/a>News<\/a>Texas City<\/a>Santa Fe<\/a>Top Stories<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lightning strike fire reports increasing in Galveston County A Texas City mother shared with FOX 26’s Jillian Hartmann…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12597,223,14972,4375,27,9192,29,28,2053,216,393,172],"class_list":["post-424671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-galveston-county","tag-news","tag-santa-fe","tag-severe-weather","tag-texas","tag-texas-city","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-top-stories","tag-tx","tag-us","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}