An elderly couple in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood lost a lot Wednesday morning when their house was struck by lightning and caught fire.
Wednesday night, 86-year-old Henry Danilecki rummaged through a pile of wet, charred debris, including his son's old trophies, a ceremonial shovel, sports memorabilia and antiques.
Nearly everything was destroyed in his furnished attic pool room after the strike and subsequent fire at 488 Adams St.
His son Brian said:
"All antiques - he's an antiques collector - all burnt, torched - tough," said Henry Danilecki's son, Brian.
Henry Danilecki said he was taking a shower and about to go downstairs to have breakfast with his 78-year-old wife, Helen, when he heard a "boom."
"I hollered down the stairs, said, 'Helen did you hear that?' And she says, 'yeah,'" he said.
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He says when he went outside to survey the damage, at first, he didn't see anything.
It was eventually a passing neighbor who spotted the flames and alerted the elderly couple.
"I knew it was lightning, just the way it happened," said Danilecki. "The bang, the tremor."
Firefighters estimate the damage at $200,000.
One special item did make it out - an autographed Bobby Orr photograph.
The elderly couple says it will be months before they can get back into their house.
