South Philadelphia couple lose everything in rowhome fire caused by lightning

SOUTH PHILADELPHIA - A couple lost everything after their rowhome caught fire and it turns out, the couple say, the flames were ignited by lightning from last Friday’s storms."We ran to the door and they were like, ‘Your house is on fire,’" said Amber Shishido. "Random as hell that it caught our house on fire.

It’s crazy."Shishido said this was their first home in Philly. She, her boyfriend, Blake Johnson, and their dog Riggs had been renting the rowhome since November 2021 and had recently renewed their lease.FOX 29's Jennifer Lee interviewed Shishido over Zoom because the home is no longer livable with widespread damage from the fire, smoke and mostly water damage."I’m currently in Ohio, because we had nowhere to go post disaster, so we came to my boyfriend Blake’s mother’s home," said Shishido. "You’re, all of a sudden, homeless and even if you find a new home, you don’t have anything to put in it.

It’s very daunting, you don’t really know where to start."Shishido is estimating the damaged to be valued between $20,000 to $30,000."It was like multiple TVs, multiple very expensive mattresses and furniture like rugs, clothing, shoes.

It’s literally everything," said Shishido. "It’s just crazy because you never think something like that is going to happen to you.