Fires damage county homes

By Dave Thompson

Published: June 26, 2008

A fire caused by a lightning strike temporarily displaced an Amherst County woman, and killed her two cats, on June 16.

Amherst County Public Safety Director Gary Roakes said the resident, whose name he did not release, called 911 at 4:43 p.m., reporting flames in her basement.

Roakes said firefighters, medics and a sheriff’s deputy arrived at the scene on Boxwood Farm Road, just north of the Town of Amherst, about nine minutes later.

Firefighters contained the blaze to the basement and extinguished it within about 10 minutes.

Roakes said the basement was the only part of the house to sustain structural damage, but the rest of the house suffered heavy smoke damage.

Neither the resident nor any emergency workers were injured in the fire, he said.

Roakes did not give a monetary estimate on the damage, but said the house will probably be habitable again, after repairs are made.

The lightning, Roakes said, didn’t cause any external damage to the house, but it did wreak some havoc with the building’s electrical system.

According to his investigation, Roakes said, the lightning struck the house and traveled through the house’s gas line, ending up in the basement, where it sparked the blaze.

He said fortunately the gas didn’t play any part in the fire.

The victim, he said, is staying with friends in the area, and declined Red Cross assistance. She did have insurance on the house.

Other fire

An Amherst County man is temporarily out of a home after an electrical fire burned a portion of his basement on June 18, but officials said the fire could have been much worse, were it not for functional smoke detectors.

Amherst County Public Safety Director Gary Roakes said Jason Sprouse was asleep when the fire sparked in the basement of his Monacan Park Road home, off Elon Road, at about 10:49 a.m. The smoke detectors woke him, and he called 911.

Roakes said fire crews were able to put out the fire quickly enough that the basement sustained minimal structural damage. Electrical problems are the main issue keeping the house uninhabitable, he said.

Roakes said no one was hurt in the fire, and Sprouse is staying with family until he can move back in.