Crime & Safety

Lightning Strikes Yorkshire Lane Home Thursday

Homeowner Frank Gill repairs the minor damage on the side of the house.

A lightning bolt exited a house at 6 Yorkshire Lane Thursday night, damaging the siding, but its point of entry remains a mystery.

Homeowner Frank Gill, who was repairing the side of his home Friday, said that his daughter, Kimberly was working on a computer Thursday when she saw a "flash of light" and "sparks  coming out of the [opposite] wall." He was not home at the time, and was driving back from East Hartford in torrential downp0urs.

"We were lucky it didn't keep going," Frank said, confirming that the sparks did not cause a fire. "I count my blessings."

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The lightning did "push the wall out," damaging the siding of the home. A dime-size hole where the lightning exited can still be seen, resembling a bullet hole.

"We couldn't actually find any place where the lightning came in," Frank said.

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He said that Fire Marshal James W. DiPace thought that the lightning may have struck a tree and traveled through the ground into the home, though he was also stumped.

The yard lights and transformers at the home were also zapped, and the downstairs telephones are dead, he said. Otherwise he has power. No one was injured.

Frank estimates that the cost for him to repair the siding is around $200.


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