Melvin Wanniplayor was drifting in and out of sleep as a movie played in the background when he was jolted awake by his son’s screams.
“Dad! Dad! Dad!” he recalled the yells that came at 2 a.m. on May 21.
Then his 15-year-old son shouted, “Fire!”
Severe storms had started pounding North Georgia the evening before, leading to several tornado watches and four confirmed tornadoes. But at Wanniplayor’s home on Grouse Court in Gwinnett County, there were only heavy downpours, lightning and thunder.
Then suddenly, the two-story house where his family had lived since January 2010 was struck by lightning.
On Wednesday, as Wanniplayor walked through the downstairs of the home wearing the same rain boots he escaped in, the smell of burnt plastic and charred wood was heavy and suffocating. More than an inch of water had pooled on the wooden floors Wanniplayor said he had recently redone. A basket full of laundry still sat atop the dryer, as if ready to be folded and put away.
The fire didn’t just consume a house — it swallowed a lifetime of memories, things they can never get back.
“I’ve been in this house this long, and all of a sudden, it’s gone just like that,” Wanniplayor said.
He said he was able to retrieve only one item: a lacquered wood print of a young Michael Jackson that had been with his family for decades.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
After the lightning struck, Wanniplayor remembers running outside and seeing flames in the right front corner of the attic. He described it as glistening gold.
Back inside, he woke his wife in their bedroom, located on the opposite side of where the fire started, all while yelling for everyone to get out. Wanniplayor said he raced against time as he wheeled his disabled mother-in-law out of the home, while his father-in-law, wife, daughter and two sons ran outside.
Firefighters responded within minutes and entered to make sure everyone had made it out safely, Wanniplayor said. He watched as flames spread across the attic, with smoke billowing from several parts of the roof. When the flames reached the kitchen and hit the gas stove, Wanniplayor described hearing a massive boom.
That’s when the roof came crashing down, and a firefighter was injured, authorities said. Other firefighters rushed to pat the flames off the crew member, Wanniplayor said.
“The whole roof collapsed on him. I just saw him rolling down the stairs,” he said.
The Gwinnett County Fire Department said Wednesday the firefighter continues to recover at home.
The odds of a home being struck by lightning are not high, but tall and isolated objects are more likely targets. According to the National Weather Service, trees and mountains are struck several times a year, and between 1989 and 2018, an average of about 43 lightning-related deaths were reported every year in the U.S.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Wanniplayor and his family returned to the house the following day and decided it wasn’t safe to access the top floor, which remains littered with gray shingles, charred wooden beams and soggy insulation. But the first floor was mostly just soaked — from both rain and the fire hoses.
And that Michael Jackson print that survived the disaster? It had been hanging on the wall in the children’s downstairs bedroom and suffered only a few water stains that wiped right off.
Everything else in the room was drenched, with furniture shifted out of place by the water and blankets strewn across the floor.
“I’m thinking down the line, it might be worth something,” Wanniplayor said about the cherished print, describing himself as a huge fan of the late artist.
Family photos that were hung in a living room upstairs and stored in cabinets are long gone, now turned to ash. Along with them, Wanniplayor lost the toys his kids played with when they were younger and the gifts the family exchanged every birthday and holiday.
Many of the photos lost do not exist digitally, but Wanniplayor is hopeful the family will make plenty of more memories worth photographing.
Now living in a four-bedroom hotel suite, Wanniplayor said he’s unsure what the future holds.
His youngest son, who alerted him to the fire, is now spending his summer break in a hotel, unable to invite friends over. Wanniplayor and his wife have also been out of work for nearly a month because of problems with their work truck, adding to the growing list of challenges the family faces.
Although insurance is covering the cost of the hotel, finances are becoming strained, forcing the family to buy only the most basic essentials. Wanniplayor pointed out his closet contains just a few pieces of clothing.
The family has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for necessities.
Still, he remains hopeful, even managing a joke that the fire took care of all of his pet roaches.
The home is likely a total loss, and Wanniplayor remains uncertain if he’ll be able to rebuild or need to buy a new one. On Wednesday morning, a fire investigator came by the house to post a sign preventing anyone from entering the property.
“The plan would be probably with the insurance, whatever they want to do,” Wanniplayor explained. “If they are going to salvage the whole house, I would love (that).”
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