July 23, 2005

Storm leaves fires in wake

       A fierce thunderstorm rolled through Johnson County on Thursday night, sparking fires, toppling tree limbs, knocking out power and forcing fairgoers to seek shelter.  Lightning was blamed for two residence fires.  The Bargersville Fire Department and five other departments responded to a house fire on County Road 100S. Lightning struck the home about 11:30 p.m., sparking a fire in the attic, Bargersville Fire Chief Mike Pruitt said.  When firefighters arrived, flames were shooting out the east end of the single-story house, he said. Firefighters were able to get the blaze under control in 35 minutes, and the homeowner took her two children to a neighbor's house, Pruitt said.  He did not have an estimate on damage but said it was considerable because of water damage.

         The White River Township department received a call about 10 p.m. about a lightning strike at home on Foxmoor Place, fire marshal Eric Brown said. Lightning struck the home's brick chimney and traveled to the furnace through a vent. Fire erupted in the attic, he said.  Brown estimated the damage at about $100,000, mostly to the ceiling from smoke and water damage.  "The homeowner saw sparks flying from the roof afterward, saw smoke coming out of the vents and said his electricity was flickering and yard sprinklers came on," Brown said. "That's when he knew lightning had struck."  The homeowner and his 10-year-old son were uninjured, Brown said.

        In Needham Township, lightning blew out smoke detectors and a garage door opener at a house on East County Road 350N, Franklin Fire Capt. Jason Ramey said.  The storm also caused a transformer to explode near Yandes and King streets, Ramey said.   A tree fell on a family's trailer on County Road 600N in Trafalgar, assistant chief Dave Abbott said. The people were able to get out and were not injured.  Elsewhere, residents reported lightning strikes and power outages. Tree limbs came down, blocking roads and hitting power lines. Fairgoers at the Johnson County 4-H and Agricultural Fair were evacuated or moved into buildings for safety.  The National Weather Service said a line of severe storms raced through Indiana from the northwest to the southeast, carrying a large amount of rain and lightning and winds as high as 70 mph, meteorologist Chad Swain said.  The major impact occurred starting at 10 p.m., when the weather service issued a tornado warning for parts of Hendricks, Marion and Morgan counties.  No tornadoes were confirmed, but sirens in Johnson County were activated.  Storms interrupted power to 2,588 Cinergy/PSI Energy customers in Johnson County, but the company had restored service to all by midday Friday, spokesman Rob Norris said.  Franklin College, downtown Franklin and the city's east side were among those affected, Norris said.  Nearly 22,000 customers were without power in Indianapolis and surrounding counties at the height of the storm, and Norris expected crews to continue restoring service to all customers by Friday night.  Volunteers at the county fair monitored the weather throughout the night and at one point heard that a tornado had been spotted in the Mooresville area and was heading for Franklin, said Jim Engmark, a White River Township firefighter who is in charge of safety and security at the fair. They started evacuating people shortly after 10 p.m., he said.  Fairgoers were told to leave the fairgrounds if they could safely, while at least 300 people moved into Scott and Herring halls, the indoor arena and the horse barn for about an hour while the storm passed.  That is standard procedure for severe weather at the fairgrounds, Engmark said.  "The slowest part was getting rides shut down," he said. "Police and firefighters went through all the tents to make sure people were out and were off the rides."  Throughout the rest of the county, fire departments assisted each other in responding to calls about lightning strikes and possible fires. Many turned out to be false, fire chiefs said.  "Everyone was spread out all over the place because of the storm," Ramey said. "We were all assisting other departments around the county, but it all happened smoothly without a hitch."  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)
 
 

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