'It was unbelievable': Nova Scotia family loses home and dogs in fire caused by lightning

When Michele Coons pulled up to her Queensland, N.S., home this weekend, she couldn't believe her eyes.

• Halifax storm lights up social media

For most people, Saturday's thunderstorm was just a spectacular light show. But Coons' rented home, where she livedwith her fiancand daughter, was destroyed by lightning. The blaze killed her dogs, Leah and Dallas.

Maybe if I was there I could have done somethingI could have gotten my dogs out.- Michele Coons

"We drove down the road and around the corner, we saw the smoke," Coons told CBC's Maritime Noon."The first thing I tried to do was go in.There were people there.I tried to go in to get my dogs,but they wouldn't let me go in the house."

Coons and her family were at a restaurant in Hubbards when the lightning would have struck.

"It was unbelievable. Even when I saw the smoke, even though it was the only house there that it could be, I didn't think it would be ours,"

She said she's relieved her family is safe.

"Maybe if I was there I could have done something, I don't know, I could have gotten my dogs out. But I don't know that, because that's not what happened," said Coons."Certainly I'm thankful that I wasn't there, if it meant that we weren't going to get out safely."

Firefighters at the scene told Coons that it was the hottest fire they'd ever been called to.

'There's nothing'

While the structure of the home is mostly intact, Coons said pretty much all the family's personal possessions have been ruined. With no renters' insurance on the contents of the home, Coons said she's lost everything.

"There's only one room that's partially intact, and that was my daughter's bedroom that was at the very front of the house. But there's water damage and the smoke was terrible," she said.

Certainly I'm thankful that I wasn't there, if it meant that we weren't going to get out safely.- Michele Coons

"There's nothing. The whole back of the house is gone, which is our bedroom and the livingroom, the sunroom."

Family members have started a GoFundMe online fundraising campaign to help Coons replace some of the possessions lost, and the gesture "means everything" to her.

"It's the small donations, I think, that mean the most because you know that it's coming from people that probably can't donate much, but they're still willing to give what they have. It's just overwhelming."

Coons is staying in a cottage in Hubbards that's owned by family members while they look for somewhere to live.