Neighbors respond to Katy house fire: 'So we went ahead and hosed down this other home'

A line of severe weather that rumbled through the Houston area on Wednesday produced lightning that struck an empty residence in Katy and set it on fire, prompting neighbors to spring into action, according to a report from Houston CBS affiliate KHOU.

The station reported that the house was one of at least two in the region to catch fire because of the day’s storms.

Residents of the Ventana Lakes subdivision battled the blaze with garden hoses, per KHOU.

Retired volunteer firefighter Derrick Hughes and his son, who’s also a firefighter, were among the residents who attempted to minimalize the effects of the fire at a nearby home.

Hughes, who was a volunteer firefighter for 20 years, told KHOU that there was nothing that could be done for the fire-stricken house.

"It was nothing we could do with water hoses,” he said, per the station. “So we went ahead and hosed down this other home, you know the exposure so that it didn’t catch on fire also.”

KHOU reported that no one was inside of the house thus allaying concerns of injuries or even worse, but the structure was gutted.

As for the residence next door that Hughes and his neighbors sought to protect from the fire’s affects, according to the station, it sustained minor damage.

A local fire department arrived to put out the blaze, KHOU reported.