LOGAN COUNTY, Okla. – During storms Monday night across Oklahoma, a lightning bolt struck the chimney of Landon Heaton’s home in Logan County.
The strike destroyed his 25-foot chimney and causing it to explode in his living room.
Heaton said he, fortunately, wasn’t home when it happened, but he was on the phone with his mom when he walked into his house.
"I pull in, there's no limbs in the yard, everything seems fine,” Heaton told KFOR. “She's like how’s it look? I open the door and say 'Oh! everything is fine except my house is destroyed.'"
Heaton said his mom didn’t believe him until she saw the damage for herself.
There was shattered glass throughout the entire house, and he said it looked like someone had dropped a bomb in his fireplace.
“It was hitting my refrigerator so hard that it dented the metal on it,” Heaton said. “Shot a piece of metal into my drywall.”
Heaton said the worst part was all the damage done to his grandfather’s gun case that was sitting right across from the fireplace.
“It’s sentimental, it can’t be replaced. My grandad made it and gave it to my dad, and from there it’s just gone down, " Heaton said. “It’s kind of sad. It’s one of those things that ... it’s one of those things I can’t hand down now.”
Heaton said he’s just thankful he wasn’t home when it happened.
“Had I been home, I would have probably been blind at best. I mean I had glass going through a leather recliner, slicing the leather, and anything that can do that is going to do way more damage to me," said Heaton.
Heaton is staying with friends until he figures out what to do next.
An insurance adjuster is supposed to come out and survey the damage next week.
