Lightning from storm destroys Midway mobile home

The Midway Fire Department has deemed this mobile home on Norman Shoaf Road to be a total loss after a late Tuesday night fire. The cause was a nearby lightning strike.

Fire investigators have determined a fire that destroyed a mobile home was due to a lightning strike from a storm that rolled through the county Tuesday night. Nearly 500 people between two power companies were without power Wednesday night as a second storm made its way through Davidson County.

Firefighters with the Midway Fire Department responded to a single-wide mobile home fire in the 1500 block of Norman Shoaf Road at 11:20 p.m. Tuesday. Midway Chief Mike Craft said his firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the residence. They quickly found a fire, but two adult sisters who live at the home escaped without injury. One of the sisters was visiting her sister who owned the mobile home, and the visiting sister safely got her sister out.

Craft said the mobile home is a total loss. The chief and fire investigators from the Davidson County Fire Marshals Office determined Wednesday that a lightning strike happened near the house and spread to wiring around a dryer in the mobile home, causing the residence to catch fire. Craft identified the homeowner as Nancy Hutchins.

Craft said one of the sisters owned the mobile home. The Greater High Point-Davidson Chapter of the American Red Cross is assisting them. All of their belongings were lost in the fire, but they had homeowners insurance.

The mobile home was over 40 years old. The fire completely destroyed a bedroom and bathroom, and heat and smoke damage was reported throughout the house. Midway firefighters were assisted on the scene by the Gumtree and Wallburg fire departments.

A.J. and Melissa Briceno live across the street from the mobile home that caught fire. They said they also heard a loud pop about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Craft said Tuesday nights storm brought heavy lightning and rain to the Midway area.

Power was restored throughout the day, but a Wednesday night storm brought more outages. Crews with EnergyUnited and Duke Energy had dropped the number of outages to single-digit numbers earlier in the evening. However, at 9:11 p.m., EnergyUnited was reporting 481 power outages and Duke Energy had eight outages.

Duke Energy had 1,213 of its 33,095 customers in Davidson County without power Wednesday morning. The companys first power outage was reported at 10:13 p.m. Tuesday.

See the original post:
Lightning from storm destroys Midway mobile home