June 16, 2015
A lightning strike is now being blamed for sparking a large house fire Tuesday afternoon in Jessamine County.
It happened at a home on Golf Club Drive near Golf Club of the Bluegrass off U.S. 68 in the Harrods Ridge neighborhood.
Nicholasville Fire Dept. Battalion Chief David Johns told WKYT's Garrett Wymer that he believes lightning struck the home, starting a fire in the attic that firefighters said spread quickly.
"An attic is an open area with plenty of fuel," Johns said. "So it doesn't take too many minutes for that to get going. And a lightning strike is obviously a very powerful force that creates a lot of heat."
Johns said the homeowners reported seeing sparks come out of the outlets when the house was hit.
Four people were inside the home at the time of the fire, firefighters said. All of them were able to get out safely.
Neighbors in the area described seeing flames shooting high into the air when the fire first started.
"First you could barely see the house, there was so much smoke," said Alexis Downs, who saw the fire from across the street. "Then once the smoke sort of cleared you just saw all these flames.
"You could feel the heat. That's how big the fire was and that's how close we were to it," Downs said.
Fire departments from Nicholasville, Jessamine County, Wilmore and Fayette County all responded to the scene.
The official cause is under investigation, even though firefighters do believe a lightning strike first sparked the fire, Johns said.
WKYT Chief Meteorologist Chris Bailey says there was a strong storm with a tremendous amount of lightning in the area at the time.
Fire crews remained on the scene after the fire was out to keep the flames and hot spots under control.