Fire Rescue News - Lightning explodes top of house chimney in Ventnor, sets fire to utility pole in Egg Harbor Township
By DEREK HARPER, Staff Writer | Posted: Thursday, July 29, 2010 | 0 comments
Lightning from a series of brief, intense storms that swept through the region Thursday afternoon set fire to a telephone pole in Egg Harbor Township and exploded part of a chimney in Ventnor, but otherwise left little damage, police from across the region said.
The National Weather Service said about 0.35 inches of rain fell Thursday afternoon at the....Continue Reading
Atlantic City International Airport, accompanied by severe thunderstorm warnings and small craft advisories. Just a trace of precipitation was seen at Millville Municipal Airport, while 0.7 inches of rain were measured at the Cape May County Airport in Wildwood.
In Ventnor, a lightning strike exploded the top of a chimney on the 100 block of South Princeton Avenue, fire Capt. Andrew Lacovara said, but no one was injured.
Lacovara said the strike happened at 2:06 p.m., in the middle of a torrential downpour.
“It was pretty hairy,” Lacovara said. “The lightning was really something. It had me standing up, you know what I mean?”
People were home, Lacovara said, and some of the debris fell into the house. Fire crews checked to ensure there was no fire.
Similarly, Egg Harbor Township fire officials closed a portion of Fire Road near the Atlantic City Electric distribution center after lightning struck a utility pole Thursday at about 4 p.m.
Fire crews had the contacted the utility for additional repair work at about 7 p.m.
The road remained closed near the intersection of Fire and Delilah roads at press time, and about 30 utility customers in the area were without power, down from 200 earlier in the day.
About 560 Atlantic City Electric customers were without power at 10:40 p.m., with about 350 of them in Ocean County, according to the utility’s outage map.
Elsewhere throughout southern New Jersey, police reported little damage beyond minor flooding and fire alarms triggered by power fluctuations.
