lightning fire

[pawlee]

sad to say this is not a report i am proud of. this afternoon we've had a line of storms roll through the area. along with, we observed medium sized hail and frequent lightning. at one point when the first storm was letting up, we heard nearby sirens. we jumped in the truck both to observe any storm damage as well as investigate the sirens. turns out, it was a fire call responding to an apartment fire at Woodcrest Apartments in Decatur IL. upon being at the scene, we found out from eyewitnesses that it was caused by lightning striking the roof of the building. people in the same building reported feeling "their hair stand on edge" (indicating step leader) moments before the strike. no word on injuries or fatalities but it does appear that at least 6 units are completely destroyed. from what we observed, the fire was very difficult to contain but did appear to be under control approximately 30 minutes prior to the time of this post. image links are below. those guys are the best, and this not only with the fire but with continued CG lightning occurring in the vicinity. Paul





(ps: i felt uncomfortable taking pictures but this is also part of my responsibility as an observer reporting to the NWSILX)

[weatherwunder]

Hopefully no one is hurt seriously. Sometimes taking photos like this can be tough, but when you must do the job, you always come through.

[pawlee]

you guys are absolutely not going to believe this! i just arrived to work and the topic of discussion among my colleagues is this fire. as it turns out, the apartment that took the direct strike belongs to MY BOSS! both he and the general manager of our sister hotel property reside there and were in Chicago at the time of the incident. i swear i am not bs'ing anyone on this for in their absence i have been the on call manager for the weekend in the event there were any problems at the hotel i work for. when we were at the scene, we didn't know whose apartment it was nor did we even know where my boss lives. my colleagues were shocked when i offered my testimonial and showed them these pictures. the one employee who is the brother in law of my boss's roommate said "yep, that's the place!" i have yet to hear from either my boss or his roomie but i will keep you informed. they have a dog that was in the care of another relative while they were in Chicago so there was no one on the site at the time of the incident thank god. also came to find out that there were no injuries or fatalities associated with this disaster. i will keep anyone interested informed on further developments. this is so sad because my boss and his roomie are super cool guys who are the last to ever deserve this, they lost everything... p

[ColdFront77]

Interesting, but truly unfortunately sad story. I am sorry to hear about your boss and his roommate. I wish them the best of luck as they deal with this upcoming situation.

[pawlee]

i am in total shock right now. i pray i get to talk to them soon and maybe hook them into my friends at the Red Cross to get them on their feet. how ironic, lightning safety week just wrapped up saturday. p

(these wx events i have experienced this season are getting way too bizarre. it's like some aspect from every one has had ramifications that hit home with someone i know or someone who knows me. it's honestly just getting way too wierd for me to handle to where i am starting to get a little freaked out. i'm not into all that hocus pocus gobblety gook so i hope i'm not freakin' anyone out with this statement either but it all just makes me think and i don't know if i like doing much of that.)

[Colin]

Wow.... this is really bad news..... hope your boss and roomate get through this OK.......they'll be in my prayers and thoughts. KEEP US UPDATED!

[pawlee]

sad to say, when Sonny came in yesterday morning to update us, he who is normally dressed to kill was wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sandals because well... that's pretty much all he had left. at work, we are all figuring what we can to help them get back on their feet. my project since Sonny and i have identical tastes in music is to burn copies of almost all of my cd's since his music and dvd collection went up in smoke (no pun intended) which he is excited about. Sonny did appear to be taking it all in stride but his demeanor was still more of shock while going through everyday motions. he did note that after coming home to see the devastation, they went out and got a bottle of Crown Royal (good stuff!) to celebrate what they do have which is their life, their friends, their health and oh yeah, thankfully, their dog. since all that was shown on the news was a brief clip of the incident, Sonny and Pat were very grateful that i happened to be there and get the images i did which they now own on disc. being able to see what happened kind of gives them a sense of closure.

in other news, got a nice email from NWSILX thanking us for our reporting of the severe wx as it was happening sunday evening as well as for submitting the storm damage we observed aside from the lightning incident. once again, just a demonstration that they really do need us so consider that a call to everyone to become involved. on a final note, never did i think that taking pictures for the wx service would in turn be of such profound significance to someone i know. p