Police Officer’s Quick Action Helps Stop Lightning Fire At Sandy Hook Home

By Andrew Gorosko

Fast action by a police officer limited the extent of fire damage to a Sandy Hook home following a lightning strike during a violent thunderstorm on the night of Saturday, May 13.

At 10:34 pm, during a heavy thunderstorm, Sandy Hook firefighters received a report of a house struck by lightning at 31 Charter Ridge Drive, said Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Chief Bill Halstead. There were no injuries in the fire at the Winch residence, which was occupied at the time, the fire chief said.

At about the time of the lightning strike, police were responding to a report of a burglar alarm at a nearby house, Chief Halstead said.

Learning of the lightning strike and fire at 31 Charter Ridge Drive, police officer Michael Brokaw took a fire extinguisher into the attic and sprayed fire extinguishing chemicals at the gable end of the house which had been struck by lightning, Chief Halstead said. The 2-1/2  story house is relatively new.

“His actions helped save that house from a lot more damage,” the fire chief said, noting Officer Brokaw’s efforts kept the blaze from spreading. Chief Halstead estimated fire damage at $5,000. The fire burned shingling, siding, and sheathing.

   At the time, Sandy Hook firefighters were traveling to the scene from the Sandy Hook main firehouse and fire substation. Newtown Hook and Ladder and Botsford firemen assisted them. About 40 firefighters responded to the call.

Arriving at the fire, firefighters spotted light smoke coming from the east gable of the tall house.

Firemen brought one charged fire hose into the house to put out the fire, Chief Halstead said. After extinguishing the blaze, firemen placed a plastic covering over the burned area to shield it from the weather.

The house was habitable after the fire, the fire chief said. An electrical check of the premises was required to gauge the extent of damage from the lightning strike, he said.

The May 13 fire was the first fire at which Sandy Hook firefighters used their new infrared heat sensor, the chief said.

“We used our thermal imaging camera for the first time. It worked out fine,” he said. Firefighters use the sensitive device to detect the source of a fire.

The May 13 lightning strike and fire on Charter Ridge Drive is the second such incident in Sandy Hook since March.

Early on the morning of Sunday, March 26, during an unseasonal thunderstorm, a lightning bolt, which struck and shattered a large tree, apparently discharged voltage through the tree’s roots into a nearby unoccupied Sandy Hook home, where it ignited a fire that caused about $65,000 in property damage to the Fabrizio residence at 27 Russett Road, not far from Charter Ridge Drive. The Russett Road lightning strike caused some of the most extensive lightning-related damage to a home in recent memory.