Fire Marshal Confirms Lightning Strike Cause of Condo Fire; Blaze Discovered in Separate Building Wednesday

The DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department returned to Highland Cove Condos Wednesday afternoon where an open flame from a ruptured natural gas line was discovered between the floors of another building there.
The maintenance manager called for the fire department after walking into a room on the third floor of the “G” building and finding it extremely hot in there.
The “G” building is some 50 feet from the “H” building where a fire destroyed two condos early Monday morning.
County Fire Chief Donny Green said the State Fire Marshal has concluded that both buildings were struck by lightning Sunday night which triggered the fires.
“We got a call from the maintenance manager at Highland Cove Condos Wednesday afternoon around 1:30 p.m. He entered unit 6 on the third floor of the G building and noticed the room temperature was extremely hot. He couldn’t even touch the tile on the kitchen floor because it was so hot. He contacted me and we got fire units enroute,” said Chief Green.
“When we got there we discovered that lightning had run in on the natural gas line conduit and ruptured the line. The concrete floor was exposed to an open flame between the second and third floor which is what made the third floor hot. As we investigated on the second floor we found a spot in the ceiling of the G4 unit that had cracked which is the point where the gas line enters the building. We were able to mitigate it with help from the gas company and the Tennessee Fire Marshal’s Office. We opened that up, got the gas cut off, and the fire went out without any major damage. There was slight damage to some drywall and to where we had torn a hole in the ceiling to get to the pipeline,” Chief Green continued.
According to Chief Green the fire had been burning unseen since the lightning strike Sunday night and would have eventually spread. “The drywall had started to fail on the back side and had it continued to burn it would have eventually ignited and spread to other parts of the building.
Members of the Main Station, Cookeville Highway, and Liberty stations responded along with the tanker truck, DeKalb EMS, the Sheriff’s Department, and an agent of Tennessee Fire Marshal’s Office.