A bolt of lightning struck a Fleetwood Falls home early this morning as the wide line of thunderstorms hit the area after midnight. Linda Killian was awakened by the loud crash of thunder as the lightning struck the window at an upper floor bedroom at about 1 this morning. (photos courtesy Fleetwood Fire/Rescue) Killian told firefighters she found a shelf of items blown across the floor and holes in her ceiling where fire was already burning out of the holes. Her 9-1-1 call came in at 1:08 this morning, and Fleetwood units, backed by Todd and West Jefferson were soon on the scene, working to contain the fire to that one bedroom.  Fire officials said that they managed to do just that, containing the fire to the bedroom, doing so while creating little water damage in the process. Damage was limited to one wall and the roof on the two-story Gap Trail home, and units were on the scene until just before 5 this morning.

Meanwhile, area utilities suffered damage from the line of storms with hundreds of customers out of power in the early morning today. Blue Ridge Electric Crews had outages across the High Country, from far western Caldwell, Ashe, Avery, Alleghany, Wilkes and Watauga with only a few scattered outages in Watauga and Ashe by early afternoon. And power outages meant numerous alarms sounding, causing law enforcement and fire responses through the storms.