Michael Phan leaned against a neighbor's house, his face still in disbelief as he looked at what was left of his south Wichita house Tuesday afternoon.
Soggy insulation, looking like green-and-yellow mulch, piled up next to the walls of his beige house on West 42nd Street South. Orange mesh fencing shielded the driveway and part of the front yard.
Sunshine flooded the inside of the house through gaping holes in the roof.
"It was like a bomb," Phan said of the noise that jolted him from sleep shortly before 7 a.m. Monday.
It was, in fact, a bolt of lightning, and it ignited a fire spotted by a man walking through the area. He pounded on the Phan family's door, yelling for them to get out.
Phan roused his fiancee and 13-year-old son and fled as smoke billowed from the roof.
The fire caused an estimated $180,000 in damage, and was the second ignited by lightning on Monday morning alone.
A bolt blew a hole in the roof of a house in the 14100 block of Sundance, near 13th Street and 141st Street East, shortly before 5 a.m. Monday, causing a reported $70,000 to $80,000 in damage.
Lightning also damaged the New Day Christian Church, near Central and Oliver, on May 29, forcing the congregation to hold services elsewhere for a couple of weeks before returning home temporarily last Sunday.
Phan said he lay in bed Monday morning wondering what had caused the loud boom. He didn't suspect lightning.
"I've got a smoke alarm," Phan said, "but nothing for lightning."
Not many homes or buildings do these days, local fire officials say. Lightning protection systems work, but "I don't see a lot of them any more," Sedgwick County Fire Marshal Tim Millspaugh said.
The systems have rods, or "terminals," dispersed at regular intervals on roofs and near chimneys. The terminals and other roof projections such as weather vanes are connected to ground wires that carry the current away from the structure.
"It's there to dissipate that energy into the ground instead of into the house," Millspaugh said.
Costs vary by structure, he said, but they're not inexpensive. Contractors must meet standards established by the National Fire Protection Association to ensure that proper materials are used and the system is installed properly.
Unless the system is installed properly, Millspaugh said, it is not likely to work properly. Even then, he said, there are no guarantees.
"Lightning can do whatever it wants," he said. "It's a roll of the dice."
While lightning often starts fires, many strikes do not. Millspaugh and others said they don't know why some bolts ignite fires and others do not.
"It's the wrath of God and Mother Nature," Wichita Fire Department Capt. Brad Crisp offered.
Because Wichita is in the heart of Tornado Alley, it sees a fair number of thunderstorms, said Chance Hayes, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service's local office.
Lightning was reported at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport on 14 of May's 31 days, he said, and a total of 23 days so far this year. Last year, lightning was reported on 50 different days.
"We've had several storms move through the Wichita area" in the past couple of months, Hayes said. "Any type of protection that a person can do to their structure is advisable. However, one needs to sit back and assess the true need for that protection."
With plenty of trees and utility poles towering over urban areas, Crisp said, most homes are at little risk of being hit by lightning. But tall buildings and large houses are more vulnerable, he said.
That's why lightning protection systems would likely be a wise investment for owners of large homes, he said.
Phan said Tuesday that he plans to ask how much it will cost to protect his house from lightning. New Day Christian Church officials are asking similar questions.
Because of its steeple, the church is something of a magnet for lightning bolts.
"We're going to have to either change that structure, or put something else around it," New Day pastor Reuben Eckels said.
