Lightning Sets 2 Houses on Fire in New Lenox

Lightning strikes during Saturday afternoon's downpour ignited two house fires in New Lenox and fire officials said they were extinguished within minutes.

No injuries were reported by firefighters or residents in either blaze, New Lenox Fire Captain Chris Ward said.

"Our companies made quick work of both fires and they pretty much confined them to the areas of the strikes," he said.

The call for the first fire at 12439 W. Regan Road came in at 3:25 p.m. and the call for the second at 2841 Northwind came in at 3:29 p.m., officials said.

"We split one engine off and we still had a bunch of mutual aid coming in," Ward said. "Dispatch automatically started sending in additional crews to the second fire."

The family living at the Regan Road home was out of town at the time of the strike, Ward said, but the residents were home on Northwind. They escaped unharmed. Erika Leader, spokesman for the , said speed was on firefighters' sides.

"They put a real good knock on it right away," she said, of the first fire. "Crews had it under control and out within, I'd say about 15 minutes."

Ward didn't have damage estimates for the fires as of about 11 p.m. Saturday.