Lightning Strikes Home, Another Damaged By Fire

By Jeff Gulley

Lightning struck a tree and a home on Main Street in Osawatomie Monday morning causing extensive damage to one residence and power outages.

Charles Culbertson was at home at 711 Main St. Monday morning when he heard a loud noise.

“It was really loud,” he said. “I knew it had hit a tree and then I saw sparks flying out of the furnace and knew it had hit the house also.”

The lightning strike sent bark and pieces of the tree into neighboring yards and as far as across the street.

A large tree branch fell across the roof and front porch of Culbertson’s home, creating two holes in the roof.

No one was injured in the accident.

Just after the lightning hit, Roger Smith smelled smoke at his home just two doors down.

After calling the city and an electrician, the Osawatomie Fire Department was called out and crews battled a structure fire throughout the morning. Osawatomie Fire Chief Du Wayne Tewes could not say for certain that the lightning strike was the cause of the fire but the timing coincided with it.

The Fire appears to have been electical in nature,” He said. “The home owner stated that prior to the lightening strike down the block, he was not having problems. After that he began to have issues on several circuits in the house. I can not so for sure the two are related, but it seems possible.”

The blaze caused an estimated $80,000 to $100,000 in damage to the structure.

The Smith home is at 701 Main. The 700 block of Main Street was closed most of the morning while crews battled the fire.

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Posted by admin on Apr 25 2011. Filed under News and Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry