Couple picking up pieces after lightning sparks fire, destroys home

HAMPSTEAD, NC (WWAY) — A day that started with dreams of palm trees and coconuts turned into a nightmare.

“He said, ‘Mitch, your house is on fire.’ I’m like, my house is not on fire. I said, ‘You’re kidding right?’ But then I could kind of pick up in his voice that it was real. He said, ‘No. Your house is really on fire, and it’s really on fire,'” Hampstead homeowner Mitch Howell said.

Mitch and his wife Shirley were in Raleigh Monday night, about to leave on a trip to Hawaii. That’s when they learned their home on Camelot Way in Hampstead had been struck by lightning and was engulfed in flames.

“I hung up, went back in, sat down at the table and told my wife and my cousin that my house was on fire. They were all laughing. ‘Nah you’re kidding right?’ No, I wasn’t kidding,” Mitch said.

The Howells have lived in the home since 2011. Their neighbors are now rallying around them and offering them a place to stay in their time of need.

“Every person in this neighborhood has sent me a text or email saying sorry or they’ve stopped by and they said they’re sorry, ‘we want to do stuff for you, what can we do?'” Mitch said.

All in all, the couple is hanging in there and looking for silver linings.

“The family photos were up above the garage there and the firemen went and got them and they’re all in the back of the truck and they’re fine,” Mitch said.

The couple planned to put the house on the market when they returned from their trip. They recently bought land in South Carolina.

They say they have heard good things from their insurance company, which has already assigned them an adjuster.