Lighting starts house fire

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Wednesday night's lightning started a fire at a house on Bridge Street in Grand Rapids.

It tore a hole in the roof.

We spoke to someone who saw it happen and the man who lives there. He says he didn't even know there was a fire until a neighbor knocked on his door. He did hear the lightning crack that caused it. "I'm not afraid of much noise but I jumped out of the chair, that was the bang that started the fire, I'm sure of it."

"The lightning came down - bam - hit it. I looked and saw the roof come off and then it started smoking," said a witness.

The entire city of Grand Rapids took quite a beating.

Trees were uprooted and covering the roads. Traffic everywhere was tied up for a while. There were also lots of flooded streets and power lines down there as well.