Wes and Carol Kupsky woke up in the middle of the night to a loud boom when lightning struck their house during a thunderstorm on June 23. What they didn’t know at the time was how much their lives were about to change.

   Wes Kupsky got up to check around his house to see if everything was still in order. Finding nothing outside the ordinary and all of his electrical appliances still functional, he went back to bed. In the morning, the family discovered the chimney from their house was in pieces in a circle around the structure. Added to this was that the phone wasn’t working nor was their Internet connection.

   The Kupskys went about their normal daily business not suspecting anything was seriously wrong. However, they came home to a house that had been badly damaged by a fire that was likely started by the lightning that struck their house.

   “We had no reason to suspect anything was really wrong,” Wes Kupsky said. “Everything electrical was still working and all I was concerned with was how to fix the chimney and get the phone and Internet working again.”

   This was not the first time the Kupsky family had been affected by a fire. Julie, a daughter of Wes and Carol’s, lost many of her possessions in an apartment fire in Green Bay.

   “Now I know what she meant when she said all she wanted was to sleep in her own bed,” Wes said. “It was really tough for her because she was glad she still had many of her things here at the house, but now she has lost much of that, too.”

   Despite the fact that much of what they owned was damaged in the fire, the Kupskys say they have been doing well, and feel blessed by all the support, prayers and offers for help that have come their way. People they don’t even know have dropped off supplies and offered monetary support.

   “Chilton really came together to help us out,” Carol Kupsky said. “People have been coming out of the woodwork to help us out, and that means so much to us.”

   A fire fund has been set up at the State Bank of Chilton, where people can donate money to the Kupsky family’s recovery efforts. It is an account at the bank that people can donate to by going to the bank and depositing money.

   The Red Cross put the family up in a hotel for the first three days after the fire so they could have somewhere to be to make some decisions about how to move forward. When they arrived at the hotel room, people had already left everything from food to toothpaste and clothes.

   “There were things left for us here that we would have never thought we needed in a time like this,” Wes said. “I don’t think this has been a tragedy, but more of a blessing because of how people have shown their support and prayed for us.”

   This support has come in the form of not just the giving of supplies, but also people stopping by the Kupsky residence to offer help in cleaning up. Three different people have offered to have the family live with them while they attempt to get everything back in order. Good Shepherd Catholic Church held a rummage sale and allowed the family to take whatever they needed.

   The Kupskys say the tentative plan is to rebuild a house on the same property, but plans are still in the beginning stages. Wes and Carol had some advice for what people should do if their house is ever struck by lightning.

Share Link: