Lightning sparks house fire in northeast Colorado Springs

A little girl called 911 after she and her friend noticed smoke drifting from a house Tuesday evening.

It happened just after a storm passed over the northeast side of Colorado Springs. Firefighters suspect lightning started the fire.

"When we heard the lightning strike the house, it was really loud," Maddie Middlebrook told 11 News.

"It was really loud," her friend Kate Smetana agreed. "The whole house really, like, shook. It was scary."

The little girls were outside playing kickball when they saw flames.

"I saw smoke coming up off the roof and fire in the corner of the house, so I yelled to all of them and Maddie started calling 911, and we were yelling and telling all the neighbors, 'Get out of your house! It might spread!'" Kate said.

Lt. Carrick Patterson with the Colorado Springs Fire Department confirmed that smoke and flames were visible as firefighters pulled up at the house, located on Wild Cherry Lane near Old Ranch Road and Powers Boulevard.

"[Firefighters] found fire and smoke exiting the structure from the attic space. Established a water supply, quick fire attack and extinguished the fire," Carrick said.

"At this point, the most probable cause is lightning. The thunderstorm that moved through the area with lots of lightning strikes around town, and we suspect at this point that's what caused the fire," Carrick said.

In a bit of serendipitous timing, the house had just been vacated that day.

"Some tenants have moved out today," Carrick said.

The fire primarily caused damage to the attic and did not spread further, largely, Carrick said, because of the people who spotted the fire and called for help..

"Fortunately, the residents of this community...observed the fire, called it in, called 911, and initiated a quick response...to extinguish the fire very quickly. Within minutes. And that's thankful to the citizens who called it in."