Lightning sparks fires around county

A lightning strike was blamed for fire Monday at an abandoned Galveston apartment complex, fire officials said.

The fire, which destroyed eight units, was one of four caused by lightning as a strong line of thunderstorms moved across the county.

Firefighters had to break through a padlocked gate and had to use 2,000 feet of hose when on-site hydrants would not work. They also had to fight off a swarm of bees.

The fire was reported at the Marina Landing apartments, 7302 Heards Lane, at 5:45 a.m. after a line of storms crossed the island.

The complex, abandoned since Hurricane Ike hit in September 2008, was fenced and the gates were chained shut, Interim Fire Chief Jeff Smith Smith said. Firefighters had to cut through the fence to get to the fire at the rear of the complex.

When firefighters hooked up their hoses, they found the fire hydrants were dry.

Smith said the complex had private hydrants. When the city cut off water to the apartments, that also meant no water was available to the hydrants. Smith said crews ran a hose to a hydrant about 800 feet away, but it had been hit by a car last week and was not working.

Firefighters eventually found two working hydrants about 1,000 feet away from the scene, Smith said. He said people from nearby homes helped firefighters run hoses to those hydrants.

Crews then had to battle bees.

“Bees had totally inhabited the walls of the building,” Smith said. “The smoke drove the bees out, and there was a huge swarm of bees when the firefighters arrived.”

The fire was knocked down in about 45 minutes, Smith said. Eight of the building’s nine units were destroyed.

One firefighter was treated at the scene for heat exhaustion, Smith said.

Smith said neighbors told firefighters that just before the fire broke out they heard a clap of thunder. The fire marshal confirmed it was a lightning strike, Smith said.

City spokeswoman Alicia Cahill said water department employees went to the complex to turn the water back on but cut service to buildings that were leaking. Cahill said the point was to recharge the hydrants, just in case there were other fires.

“We would hate to see this situation repeat itself,” she said.

Other lightning strikes were reported:

• Late Sunday night, lightning struck a palm tree near 13th Street and 24th Avenue in Texas City, leaving behind a scorched tree trunk, the city’s homeland security director, Bruce Clawson, said. A tree in the 900 block of 24th Avenue also was struck by lightning, city officials said.

• Lightning also was suspected to have started a small attic blaze at a house in the 12900 block of Concho on the island’s West End at 1:30 p.m. Damage from that blaze was minimal and doused quickly, Smith said.

• At 3 p.m., lightning struck a house in the 7000 block of Avenue R in Santa Fe. It did not cause a fire but did knock off some bricks from the chimney, fire officials said.

A Galveston County Sheriff’s Office deputy reported a near miss with a lightning bolt as he patrolled the San Leon-Bacliff area. He reported to dispatchers that lightning struck the road immediately in front of his patrol car about 2 p.m.