For most, the night sky is something that lets us dream. We watch it and make wishes on shooting stars, never thinking it could harm us. But sometimes here on Earth, you can forget that space is full of danger. It’s a reminder no one really wants, but for one family, they unfortunately got.

When a blinding fireball came out of the sky in November and hurtled toward a California family’s home, there was no warning ‒ just a jarring crash and a fire breaking out suddenly in their house. Dustin Procita, along with his wife, Jeanette, and their two dogs, were inside the house, when he said a meteor slammed into the home. 

Photos that were captured showing what appears to be a meteor in the sky that Dustin Procita said hit his house and started a fire. Photo from YouTube

Procita told news outlet KCRA, “I heard a big bang,” he said. “I started to smell smoke. I went onto my porch and it was completely engulfed in flames.” “I’ve always watched meteor showers and stuff as a kid, but I definitely didn’t look forward to them landing in my yard or through my roof,” he told KCRA.

Firefighters battle a blaze following a reported meteor strike on a family’s home. Photo by CAL Fire

NASA and U.S. Air Force are investigating the blaze to see if it was a meteor that did destroy the family home. Procita, after speaking with neighbors, said he believed it was. “I did not see what it was, but from everybody I talked to – it was a flaming ball falling from the sky, (and) landed in that general area.”

A nearby homeowner managed to catch on his doorbell camera the flash of light as it shot down across the sky and into Procita’s home.  Fire officials later said they fought the flames for hours. “Meteorite, asteroid ‒ one of those two,” Capt. Josh Miller said. 

“I had one individual tell me about it first and like, okay, I’ll put that in the back of my mind. But then more people ‒ two, three or four more started coming in and talking about it.” Fire Capt. Clayton Thomas said that this ordeal was a “very unique type of situation. But at this point, because our investigation isn’t done, I can’t rule that out as a possibility. They have struck homes throughout the world in the past.”

The charred remains of a home that is suspected of being hit by a meteor. Photo by CAL Fire

Some studies show that the odds of being hit by a meteor are as much as one in four trillion. When Procita saw the video of the fireball for the first time, he became confident that it was just a random cosmic occurrence. Tragically, one of the family’s two dogs died from the fire.

Procita and his wife also lost everything because of the blaze. But both have said they are thankful that it wasn’t worse. “Oh wow, looks like a flaming basketball coming out of this sky,” Procita said, while watching the video. “Definitely feel very lucky that it was 30 feet away from me and not five.” Watch below for a look at this tragic night.