Haskell Home Burns As Result Of Apparent Lightning Strike

Bill Stapleton and his wife are out of the country on a cruise.

Their sons had to tell them this morning that their Muskogee County home had been destroyed. There's hardly anything left.

The Stapleton home on Wichita Street in Haskell burned to the ground, likely caused by a lightning strike, according to one of their sons.

Storms ripped through much of Oklahoma Wednesday and Thursday morning, leaving a wake of property damage in its path.

"Makes me sick," son Weston Stapleton said. "[You] feel helpless when you're watching your parents' home go up in flames, you know, memories and everything."

4/18/2013 Related Story: Lightning Strike Blamed In Rural Muskogee County House Fire

Stapleton was one of the first on the scene.

"I think it's more of a shock thing," he said. "It's one thing to tell somebody that, but it's another thing when you actually visually see it."

A view from SkyNews 6 showed the size of the home and just how far it is set back from the road. Haskell's fire chief said they couldn't make it to the home this morning because the road was flooded.

Our Oklahoma weather experts report 4 inches of rain fell north of Haskell.

On Highway 72 just north of the city, rainwater flooded the road and small ponds formed in the fields.

"Hasn't really sunk in yet, because we were trying to salvage what we can while the fire was happening," son Jon Stapleton said.

Jon Stapleton said his parents have lived there since the mid-1990s. The sons even helped build a large part it.

"I mean, it was just a big family thing," he said. "That's how we stayed together for so long, was just building this place up, and there's nothing here now."

The family is left now trying save whatever they can.

Their gun safe is still smoldering, and the fire caused some of the bullets inside this ammunition box to ignite.

No one knows what will happen next, but the family does have insurance.

"I don't know," Weston Stapleton said. "Honestly, I don't know if they'll rebuild. I don't know if they'll relocate. I have no idea."