Fire displaces family: Mom, son escape unharmed after lightning hits home

As Mindy Wineinger watched flames envelop her home near Madden Hill north of Seymour on Thursday, thoughts of another fire flashed through her mind.

“I had an instant flashback,” Wineinger said of the Aug. 3, 2009, fire that destroyed Kidz and Co., the downtown business she co-owned with her mother. “My second thought was, ‘Why is this happening to me again?’”

Wineinger and her 5-year-old son, Noah, were the only ones at the home at 9378 N. County Road 625E when the fire broke out around 8 p.m. The blaze was a result of a lightning strike.

“I heard a big crack and the house shook, but I didn’t think anything about it, because when it thunders, the house always shakes,” she said. “I went to go upstairs and smelled a faint smell of smoke.”

She called her parents, Mark and Marsha Waskom, who live nearby. When they arrived minutes later, flames were coming from the roof of the garage, she said.

The fire spread to the main part of the home, destroying the upstairs level, she said.

“There was a lot of smoke damage to the house, and the basement has water damage,” she said. “We’re going through things right now, so I don’t know how much we’ll be able to save.”

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