Lightning strikes tree, destroys home interior

Staff Writer

By linda denicola

UPPER FREEHOLD — No one was hurt in a house fire caused by lightning on Aug. 27, but the loss was still great for the family.

According to Monmouth County Deputy Fire Marshal Kevin Stout, although the exterior remained intact, the interior of the house at 17 Trotters Way was completely consumed, when lightning struck about 6:30 p.m., during storms that sped through the area that day.

"The family was home and observed lightning strike a tree to the rear of the house. The lightning transmitted through the ground into the basement and started the fire," Stout explained, adding that the tree was split but remained standing.

"This was a brand-new house. The people had moved in within the past five months," he said.

"It took about three hours to get the fire under control. It was a difficult fire to fight because the house was about 500 feet from the road and up a hill. It was difficult to get the apparatus in there."

According to Stout, there are a lot of lightning strikes in the area, which consists of mostly farmland, because of a large concentration of iron ore in the ground.

But, he said, none of them have involved personal injury. "That’s the biggest thing we worry about," he said.

Firefighters from four counties, Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington and Mercer, responded to the fire, Stout said. The Millstone Fire Company and the Hope Fire Company in Allentown were the first two companies on the scene.