A two-story garage was damaged after an apparent lightning strike in Oxford Wednesday afternoon.
There were no injuries.
The Oxford Fire Department was sent to 13 Cherokee Drive at about 12:15 p.m. after a person called and said their detached garage had just been struck by lightning.
Cherokee Drive overlooks Swan Lake, but there are no hydrants in the area, so Oxford called for help from fire departments in Beacon Falls and Seymour.
The garage, a short distance from the house, was on fire when crews arrived, Oxford Fire Chief Scott Pelletier said.
“Firefighters quickly attacked it and kept it contained to the detached garage,” Pelletier said.
Tax records state the property is owned by Richard Porell.
The property owners were able to get a few motorcycles out of the garage, but a Mazda Miata inside the garage suffered fire damage.
Pelletier described the damage to the structure as ​“moderate to heavy.”
“It will be repairable,” he said.
Firefighters dealt with the blaze during a downpour that brought heavy rain and thunder to the Valley Wednesday. Click the video at the end of this story to watch hail falling in Oxford. The video is courtesy of Talking Finger, a marketing company.
As of 1 p.m., firefighters were doing overhaul work on a second-story storage area inside the garage. Pelletier, who is also the town’s fire marshal, said his office will have to verify that the fire was sparked by lightning.
“At this point with the rain, the number of firefighters in the back of the building, with the mud and the slope, we may not be able to tell,” he said.
