‘Like a bomb went off:’ Lightning hit before fire started

Lightning is suspected as the cause of a Friday morning fire that destroyed the attic and second floor of a house in northern Jessamine County.

No one was injured in the blaze in the 1100 block of Ashgrove Pike, said Jessamine County Fire Chief Mike Rupard.

The homeowner awoke to a loud boom.

“He said it sounded like a bomb went off,” Rupard said. “He got up and looked out the back window of his bedroom. He thought it might have been a transformer that was hit but he didn’t see that.”

When the homeowner went to investigate, he saw flames coming from beneath the floor of a first-floor fireplace, Rupard said. He used an extinguisher on the flames then went upstairs.

Later, the homeowner found that the fire had intensified and tried to extinguish it again. At that point, he called the fire department and evacuated the house.

The fire was reported at 7:40 a.m. The attic and second floor were gone by 9:30 a.m. as rain continued to pour.

Firefighters with the city of Nicholasville were the first to reach the scene, Rupard said. Later Jessamine County and Lexington firefighters and trucks arrived.

Jessamine firefighters shuttled water by a 2,000-gallon tanker truck from a hydrant, a quarter-mile east of the scene. The tankers emptied the water into a drop tank which supplied water to the hoses. Lexington tanker trucks also assisted.

The house had working smoke detectors, Rupard said.

He estimated that 50 firefighters worked on the fire.

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 9:25 AM with the headline "‘Like a bomb went off:’ Lightning hit before fire started."