UPDATE: Lightning Strike Starts an Attic Fire at Grand Avenue Home

Area fire fighters extinguished an attic fire Monday morning that was ignited when lightning struck a home at N93W17282 Grand Ave.

A powerful storm accompanied by heavy rains and crackling lightning strikes passed through the village at around 9:30 a.m. Unfortunately for Mark Van Den Berg, his home was on the receiving end of one of those strikes at approximately 10 a.m.

“It sounded like an atomic bomb went off. It was the loudest crash you could imagine. I was sleeping in the living room and it woke me up,” Van Den Berg said. “My wife saw it and said the entire other side of the street lit up – the entire sky lit up.”

His neighbors also reported hearing that same strike in their homes. Some said their entire home shook, others also reported seeing the entire street and sky light up.Many said they checked their own homes to see if they were the ones who were hit.

Van Den Berg said he could smell smoke shortly after, and grabbed a ladder to check the attic. When he opened the attic door, smoked bellowed out from door and he called the fire department shortly after. Everyone in the home made it to safety, and no one was injured.

For the past week, Van Den Berg had been working on remodeling a bathroom on the top floor of his house. He had just finished installing the floor, and smoke also filled that room. He said fire fighters told him it appeared that the lightening strike passed through the metal ventilation system of the bathroom and down through the home.

“We believe the fire was started by a lightning strike,” said Menomonee Falls Fire Chief Jeffrey Hevey. “When we pulled up initially we didn’t have any smoke showing, then suddenly we had a lot of smoke showing from the roof.   So whatever was burning in the attic took off just as we pulled up. It’s a good thing they called us when they did.”

Hevey said a majority of the fire was in the attic and a utility vent into the basement. He said there was some smoke in the basement but the fire appeared to stay in the attic.

Fire fighters used a chainsaw to cut two large holes into the roof to ventilate the fire and spray water onto the blaze. Apart from the two large holes, fire damage in the attic and some water damage, the home remained intact.

“The homeowners still have a home, but we don’t have a damage estimate at this point,” Hevey said.

When fire fighters arrived on the scene, rain was still falling in sheets. As fire fighters from Menomonee Falls, Germantown, Lannon, Richfield and Sussex battled the blaze the skies broke and cleared. By the time they were packing equipment away, the sun was shining and the skies were clear.