Family devastated after lightning strike destroys their Gwinnett Co. home

A lightning strike is being blamed for destroying a Gwinnett County house that had been part of a family’s history for nearly 70 years.

“It was out of nowhere,” resident Charles Babb told Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson . “Just a complete, freak thing.”

Babb and his wife were home at the time of the fire early Sunday morning at around 4:30 on New Hope Road.

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He remembers hearing a boom, and then seeing smoke fill his house.

“It had such force and such concussion that it rattled my house,” he said.

He and his wife escaped with two of their dogs, but three of their five cats died in the fire.

Two more cats remain missing.

“I’m afraid I will never see the other two I have left again,” he said.

The fire quickly destroyed the home.

Gwinnett County firefighters responded but had to take a defensive stance because of the size of the fire and because of the home’s construction.

Babb says the house has been in the family for 68 years.

“It’s devastating,” he said. “I have to literally now rebuild.”

Family heirlooms, clothes, work tools, and hard-to-find medications were all lost in the fire.

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Babb says he’s at least thankful his two children were not home at the time of the fire.

But he says the future is uncertain while the bills continue to mount.

“I never would have thought this would have happened,” he said.

Friends have started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to try and help the family with essentials while they try and find a new, permanent home.

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