Lightning Strikes Cause Fires, Power Outages

By Andrew Gorosko

A heavy thunderstorm that moved through town on the Fourth of July triggered two structure fires due to lightning strikes, caused more than 300 electric utility customers to lose their power, and dumped heavy rain.

Structure fires occurred at two residential properties — 11 Schoolhouse Hill Road in the borough and at 15 Hemlock Trail in the Riverside section of Sandy Hook.

At 5:06 pm, Newtown Hook & Ladder, Sandy Hook, and Hawleyville firefighters were dispatched to 11 Schoolhouse Hill Road, which is the Barbour residence, said Deputy Fire Marshal Rich Frampton, who is a Hook & Ladder firefighter.

Resident David Barbour saw smoke coming from his three-bay detached garage on the property and alerted firefighters, Mr Frampton said. There were no vehicles in the garage. There were no injuries. Damage may range from $10,000 to $15,000, Mr Frampton said.

Apparently, lightning struck the garage’s rain gutters and then followed a drainage leader, causing the garage to catch fire.

 Most damage occurred in a storage area located above the garage bays. The garage can be repaired, Mr Frampton said.

At 5:23 pm, firefighters were alerted to a house fire at 15 Hemlock Trail in Riverside, said Sandy Hook Fire Chief Bill Halstead. No one was home at the time. Sandy Hook, Botsford, and Hawleyville firefighters responded. The property is owned by Emanuel Planakis of New York.

The compact two-story house was struck by lightning, Chief Halstead said. The house is located on a steep hill that extends upward from Riverside Road.

A couple of  firefighters who were overcome by heat were treated at the scene, the fire chief said. No damage estimate was available. The insured house is not habitable due to fire damage.

The fire extensively damaged the structure, Chief Halstead said. It took about 20 minutes to control the blaze, he said.

At 5:08 pm, in the period between the calls for the Schoolhouse Hill Road garage fire and the Hemlock Trail house fire, firefighters were alerted to a lightning strike at the Fehrs residence at 1 Bristle Lane, which is a side street off Jeremiah Road, Chief Halstead said.

Sandy Hook firefighters learned that an underground electronic security system that is used to keep dogs on the property had been struck by lightning, Chief Halstead said. The lightning strike blew out the dog security system and also damaged an electric pump for a domestic water well, he said. There were no injuries. No damage estimate was available.

At 5:38 pm, Hawleyville firefighters responded to a home at 44 Taunton Lake Road on a report of a lightning strike.

Hawleyville Assistant Fire Chief Bill Brunetti, Jr, who was incident commander, said that lightning struck a tree near the house, followed the tree’s root system and entered the house, destroying various electrical appliances within it, such as a stove and dishwasher. The lightning strike knocked the house’s telephone junction box off the exterior of the building, he said.

There were no injuries in the incident, he said.

At 6:01 pm, Hawleyville firefighters were called to the intersection of Taunton Hill Road and Taunton Lane where a tree had fallen onto utility lines, Mr Brunetti said.

Firefighters closed off the area to traffic and called in utility companies to make repairs.

Earlier, at 4:35 pm, Sandy Hook firefighters were called to the intersection of Berkshire Road and Toddy Hill Road on a report of lightning striking a tree, which caused the tree to fall onto utility lines. The heavily traveled area was closed to traffic until repairs could be made.

 Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) spokesman Mitch Gross said the first storm-related outages were reported to CL&P at about 4 pm.

The highest number of customer outages occurred between 8 and 9 pm when 334 customers were without electricity. Local electric service was returned to normal by about 1 am on July 5, he said.

CL&P has more than 10,700 customers in Newtown.