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Attic fire sparked after lightning strike

Damage limited to home in Whitewater Creek Estates

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

No one was seriously injured when lightning struck a home in the Whitewater Creek Estates subdivision in south Fayette Friday afternoon.

The homeowners weren’t home at 175 Troon Drive when the incident occurred, said Capt. Pete Nelms of the Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services. A neighbor reported the fire after seeing smoke coming from the top of the house, Nelms said.

One firefighter was taken to the hospital after becoming dehydrated and suffering heat-related illnesses, Nelms said.

Another firefighter — who entered the house with a crew to make an interior attack — was in the attic when a “flashover” occurred, sending flames all around him and past his ankles to the second floor, Nelms said. The firefighter’s protective gear held up and he was uninjured, Nelms added.

The firefighter had crawled into the attic in an attempt to put water on the fire and cool off the air in the room. A flashover occurs when the superheated air in an enclosed space heats to the point where it combusts, Nelms said.

In this case, the attic had combustible materials such as wood and insulation that added to the flashover, Nelms noted.

“It’s a very dangerous aspect of firefighting and it’s the last place you want to be because everything ignites,” Nelms said, adding that the department spends a lot of its resources on protective gear for firefighters.

The gear is designed to meet the highest safety standards for protecting firefighters, Nelms said.

“In this case, it saved his life,” Nelms said.

The amount of damage to the home was estimated at $60,000, Nelms said.