Firefighters responding to lightning strike forced to shelter from tornado
Texas firefighters were called to a house struck by lightning, but needed to take shelter in the resident's garage when a possible tornado struck.
AccuWeather’s Bernie Rayno breaks down the visible wind patterns that show a possible tornado in Houston, Texas, on Nov. 24.
Firefighting routinely involves high-risk situations, and a crew from the Cy-Fair Fire Department’s Station 11 in Houston faced two severe weather-related threats on Monday.
After responding to a lightning strike that caused smoke in an attic, the crew was about to leave the home when they noticed a rapid change of wind direction, bending whole trees to the ground.
That type of sudden change in wind direction can indicate a tornado, AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said. The firefighters took shelter in the garage until the storm passed, and their firetruck camera captured the scene.
Firefighters take shelter in a garage during a likely tornado in Houston on Monday. (Cy-Fair Fire Department via Storyful)
"It was my first time ever experiencing that situation. I was a little bit afraid," John Toussaint, a firefighter and EMT, told local TV station KPRC. "You know, we’re all human, right? That time for me where I was like, ‘Oh wow, you know we’re in a tornado.’”
The National Weather Service has confirmed that two tornadoes struck northwestern Houston on Monday.
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