Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 10, 1993 TAG: 9305100117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But careless habits, not Mother Nature, brought on most of the fire damage to houses Sunday.
The houses hit by lightning - one on Delaware Avenue Northwest, another on Melrose Avenue Northwest - smoldered a bit, yet survived with little damage.
The most damaging fire, on the city's north side, was apparently caused when a cigarette was dropped into a couch in the 1100 block of Orange Avenue Northwest, said District Chief Garry Basham.
"It probably had been smoldering for a long time," he said. "There wasn't anybody there when we arrived."
When firefighters got to the Orange Avenue fire, flames were shooting out the second story. The house sustained an estimated $15,000 damage.
A couple of places were also struck by lightning on the city's south side. On Wasena Avenue, a young girl was near a window inside the house when lightning struck a backyard tree; she received "static shock" in her hands just from being near the lightning strike, said fire Capt. Garry Morefield. The girl was not seriously injured.
But again, the blaze in a three-story house in the 1200 block of Chapman Avenue was not caused by the weather.
The fire there, which caused $10,000 damage, apparently broke out because "either a candle or a cigarette was dropped in a chair," said Southside District Chief Bobbie Slayton.
Basham wasn't sure what else could be said about fires caused by unextinguished cigarettes. "That's the one I don't think we'll ever be able to stop," he said, "unless people stop smoking."
by CNB