( CNN ) -- An elderly man and his granddaughter died after a bolt of lightning started a fire in a house in Louisville , Kentucky , on Thursday evening , officials said . The lightning came from powerful storms that struck the area , causing auto accidents , flooding viaducts and stranding cars . The 911 call from the people inside the house came in around 6:45 p.m. , said Vince Luney , communications supervisor for EMA Metrosafe , a public safety agency . Amid a flurry of other emergency calls , firefighters were dispatched to the scene and arrived within minutes . The elderly man was bedridden and his granddaughter was trying to get him out of the house , said Gregory Frederick , the Louisville fire chief . It took `` about 10 or 15 minutes to actually locate them because of the severity of the fire , '' he said . `` We had to knock some of the fire down to get firefighters in there to effect the rescue . The fire had a pretty good head start on us . '' Between them , the 30 firefighters on the scene pulled the two people out of the house . `` Those boys were brave -- the flames were going , they were running straight to it , back up a bit , and run again , '' Billy Ray Garrett , a resident of the neighborhood told CNN affiliate WAVE . `` If anybody died in that house , it ai n't because of anything they could do , they were trying , they were fighting . '' The elderly man died of his injuries at the scene , according to Frederick , and the woman was declared dead at a Louisville hospital . Several family members were present at the time and were notified , he said . Firefighters are investigating the blaze and are treating lightning as the preliminary cause . `` Lightning struck an 80-foot-tall tree , hit about 40 feet up , and it entered a phone wire that came in through the rear of the house , '' Frederick said . Melted wire suggested the phone line had carried the lightning 's charge into the basement of the house , he added . Fire crews reported smoke in the basement upon arrival . `` It was like having a blow torch coming out the side of the house , '' Garrett said . `` It was running all the way up the side of the other house , it was all coming through the bottom window , like a massive torch . '' The house is still standing , according to Frederick . `` It 's got pretty severe damage to the basement and the first floor , '' he said . `` It 's an older , probably 1940s-era house , so the fire traveled ( through ) sealed spaces and moved into other areas of the house . '' Severe thunderstorms that pushed through the area included winds that topped more than 60 mph , according to the National Weather Service . The storms knocked out power in thousands of homes across Kentucky . Follow local coverage at WAVE-TV . The roof of Louisville 's Crowne Plaza Hotel was partially torn off , sending debris onto vehicles in the parking lot below , officials said . No injuries were reported to EMA Metrosafe . `` We probably made somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 other runs '' to deal with problems caused by the storm , Frederick said . A multitude of those requests came within 20 to 30 minutes , he added . In nearby Oldham County , a man on a boat on the Ohio River was struck by lightning , said Don Dahl , the North Oldham deputy assistant fire chief . The young man was in speedboat with about four other people when the storms rolled in from the Indiana side of the river , Dahl said . The man appeared to have taken a direct hit from lightning and was `` hurting pretty bad , '' according to Dahl . The emergency services got the man onto land and into a waiting ambulance , which took him to a Louisville hospital , he said . The man 's latest condition was not immediately available . He was taken to the hospital with `` unknown injuries , '' said Jason Smiser , Oldham County dispatcher .
NEW : A man is struck by lightning on the Ohio River . NEW : The fire in the house was `` like a blow torch , '' a neighbor says . By MICHAEL ROSTON and MARC ZUCKERApril 30, 2014 Storms in the area brought winds that topped more than 60 mph .