Glen Rock Home Damaged After Tree Struck By Lightning

GLEN ROCK, NJ — When a dog walker arrived at a home on Prospect Street around 7 a.m. Thursday morning, she didn't expect to find a shattered window and other damages.

More surprising may be how those damages came to be.

Glen Rock Police Chief Dean Ackermann said that the dog walker arrived at the home to discover the damages that resulted from a lightning strike to a tree in the home's backyard.

When that strike happened, electrical currents traveled through an overhead electrical wire for "decorative yard lights" that lead into the home.

That resulted in the busted window, but it also blew a surveillance camera off the back of the home, and blew an electrical socket off a wall in the kitchen.

The family who owns the home was vacationing at the time, Ackermann said, but a dog was home. The animal was uninjured, but "a little upset," Ackermann reported.

Once the incident was reported, PSE&G shut off all utilities to the home, and police closed Prospect Street between Rock Road and Locust on Thursday morning. It has since reopened.

Police officers and firefighters from Glen Rock and Fair Lawn also responded to the scene.

The Glen Rock fire investigator determined that although "considerable repairs will need to be made," the house wasn't structurally comprised. Additionally, there was no fire reported from the strike.

"The vacationing homeowner is extremely lucky as is the family dog," Ackermann said.

The strike was believed to occur sometime between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Wednesday.

Patch has reached out for comment from the Glen Rock Police Department, and will update this story as more information becomes available.