Over the weekend, our C-Shift crews responded to a structure fire related to a lightning strike on Burnt Pine Cove in Sandestin.
The call happened Saturday morning, June 28, and started as an alarm activation. This means the home’s fire/carbon monoxide alarm system was triggered and the alarm monitoring service notified our Dispatch Center about the alarms activating within the home. The alarm monitoring service also relayed to Dispatchers that no one was home to confirm what had caused the alarm.
Truck 4 responded to the alarms call and at first, arrived on-scene to find no smoke or flames were immediately visible. The firefighters continued investigating and quickly noticed evidence of the home taking a lightning strike to its roof. Firefighters also noted a faint smell of smoke.
The Truck 4 Officer then requested additional firefighters and apparatus to respond to the home knowing the strike had potentially created a fire within the attic space. These fires can grow quickly, oftentimes due to numerous fuel sources in an attic like wood framing and insulation.
Fortunately in this case, the fire had been detected early. The crews went to work making entry to the home, opening the attic space, and located what they had initially suspected: a working fire moving through the attic space.
Numerous crews then operated on-scene for several hours Saturday morning extinguishing and mitigating the lightning strike’s damage.
We want to wish the property owners the best moving forward in their recovery process.
