Lightning strike sets fire to Levittown home

Neighbors reach out to displaced family

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Inside her house on Orchid Road in Levittown on Aug. 7, Jackie Cacenski and her 23-month-old grandson, Jax, gazed out at the pouring rain. The scene was interrupted, Cacenski recounted days later, by a white flash of lightning accompanied by what sounded like an explosion coming from the roof.

Cacenski recalled smelling smoke before her son Robert, 23, shouted that there was fire in the attic. Cacenski is visually impaired and relies on a service dog named Mia, and she, Jax and Mia raced outside. She put her grandson and the dog in her car, then ran back in to grab the family pets, a dog named Kingston and a guinea pig named Henry, and called 911.

Her husband, Chester, Robert and her younger son Michael, 14, followed her outside, and the family was soon sitting in the car, watching flames engulf their home. “It all happened so fast,” Cacenski recalled. “We’re just grateful we all got out. But it was really, really upsetting for my sons.” She added that they had lived in the house since Robert was born.

There were similar situations across Nassau County the night of Aug. 7, including six calls that some 60 East Meadow Fire Department volunteers responded to, according to former Chief John O’Brien Sr.

Between 8:06 and 8:36 p.m., five calls involved homes that had been struck by lightning, although in each case there was nothing more damaging than smoke and charring at the point of impact. East Meadow firefighters were also helping to extinguish a fire that started after lightning struck the roof of Prospect Elementary School in Hempstead.

Cacenski and her family — including her daughter, Alissa, 20, who was not at home during the fire — were staying at the Residence Inn in Plainview as the Herald went to press, where they described their experience. Their house is undergoing reconstruction that will take roughly seven months, Cacenski said.

“We’re, I guess, in a state of shock still,” she said. “You know, going through the motions.”

The day after the fire, several of friends and family members began collecting money to help them rebuild. “It’s an all-hands-on-deck operation to assist them as their neighbors, friends and just good people who want to help,” said Luisa Zafonte, of East Meadow, a close friend of Cacenski’s who shared the family’s story on the East Meadow Moms page on Facebook.

Caring Pediatrics of Levittown and Chester’s sister, Lauralee Cacenski-Rogers, set up GoFundMe pages, and as of press day, they had received $730 of a goal of $15,000, and $2,715 of a goal of $4,000, respectively.

“Some stuff we already know isn’t going be salvageable,” Cacenski said, and Chester added that the entire top floor of the house was charred, and the walls and ceiling sustained heavy water damage and might have to be removed to prevent the growth of mildew. While the home is repaired, the family will still have to pay the mortgage and utility bills.

“You don’t think you’ll ever experience something like this,” Cacenski said. After she spoke with the Herald, she and her family were preparing to look for an apartment. Despite what had happened, she said, they were grateful to be together, and healthy.