Fire caused by lightning displaces 10 N.J. apartment residents

A fire caused by a thunderstorm that rolled across New Jersey displaced four families from an apartment complex in the Philadelphia suburbs, authorities said.

Lightning struck near the Heritage Grove Apartments in Voorhees Township around 9 p.m. Tuesday, igniting the blaze, according to NJ.com .

Six units were damaged in the resulting fire and continuing storm, two by the flames and four by the water, NJ.com reported. Ten people across four families were displaced and helped by the Red Cross .

Firefighters arrived and doused the blaze, and no people were injured in the incident, according to NJ.com . Fire officials said the flames likely erupted from a lightning strike that was part of a strong series of thunderstorms that rolled across New Jersey on Tuesday.

The entire tri-state area dealt with severe weather in the early half of the week, with temperatures climbing into the 90s and even hitting 100 in parts of New Jersey.

In Voorhees, about 10 miles east of downtown Philadelphia, temperatures peaked at 98 degrees on Tuesday. That was 10 degrees higher than the average temperature for July 16 and only four degrees short of the record of 102 degrees. The thunderstorm struck around 8 p.m., when temperatures were still in the low 90s, according to Weather Underground.

Another series of powerful storms struck New Jersey on Wednesday, but Thursday was expected to bring relatively cooler temperatures and only isolated pockets of light rain , according to the National Weather Service.

“A strong cold front will cross the Middle Atlantic region early this morning,” NWS forecasters wrote. “It will be followed by high pressure for the end of the week and into the weekend.”