Renee Lawrence and her family knew the storm outside was one of the scariest they'd seen. They didn't realize just how damaging it was until their doorbell started ringing like crazy. That was when they saw the smoke. 

Renee and her parents had been spending the night in their basement during the severe thunderstorm that began on Wednesday night and carried over into Thursday morning. It was only after the storm appeared to stop that they saw what the lightning had done to their garage.

"About 3:30, 4:00 the storm was really bad so we were all in the basement," Lawrence said. "We heard a lot of loud cracks of lightning and thunder and it almost sounded like it did hit something, but we didn't really think anything of it. Around 4:00, the storm died down so mom and dad went back upstairs. Me and my daughter were sleeping in the basement. All of a sudden, about 4:45, we heard the doorbell ringing constantly."

Lawrence said she made it about halfway up the stairs before she heard her mother yell that something was on fire. She ran up the stairs to find the two-story garage engulfed in flames and a town of Carlyle worker who'd been out checking on storm drains was ringing their doorbell to warn them. 

"It was kind of crazy," said Lawrence. "It's super panic mode at first, but once you see that it takes time to burn and you have time to get out, and everyone is fine, it's a little more calming."

The sight of the fire against the early morning darkness was bright enough to be momentarily blinding when Lawrence first saw it. She said she walked down the street without shoes on almost without realizing it. Almost as impressive as the sight of the blaze was the smell. 

"You can smell the smoke even after," she said. "I stood out and watched the whole thing and just like at a campfire, your hair smells and your clothes smell." She added that the fire took about a dozen firefighters to put out, and lasted for seven hours."

The garage was a total write-off, and the fire department confirmed it was a lightning strike that started the fire. Many of the possessions in the garage were destroyed, including some toys for the grandkids and the fully furnished upstairs area. But the fire department did get two vehicles out. And the family was luckier still in another way as Renee's sister and her husband had been living in the garage until about six weeks ago. 

"We always say things happen for a reason," she said. "They've been looking for a house for a while and this May they finally found one. We think there was a reason that house came on the market and they got it, because otherwise who knows what would've happened if they'd been up there."