Lightning causes fire at Powell area home

Posted 7/18/19

It’s unclear whether a Tuesday afternoon lightning bolt actually hit a house on the Willwood or struck right next to it, but the jolt of electricity was enough to rupture a gas line and start a …

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Lightning causes fire at Powell area home

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It’s unclear whether a Tuesday afternoon lightning bolt actually hit a house on the Willwood or struck right next to it, but the jolt of electricity was enough to rupture a gas line and start a fire inside the residence.

The strike arrived with a “giant crack all at once” around 5 p.m., said homeowner Chris Gunn. Gunn was in Cody at the time, but his wife Laura Viklund and their two children, ages 4 and 6, were there for the ordeal.

Gunn said it appeared the gas line arced when the lightning charged the house, causing a small hole that began shooting out flames.

Viklund and the children got out of the house and called for the Powell Volunteer Fire Department, which
extinguished the fire. While the event was “terrifying,” Gunn said all of the family members are “a-OK.” There was no significant damage to the residence, either.

“If somebody wasn’t home, we would have lost our house. ... We’re really lucky and fortunate that she [Viklund] was here and we were able to get the fire department there as quickly as we did and so little damage occurred,” Gunn said. “We’re all super lucky.”

He made a point of praising the “fantastic” crew from the fire department and the EMTs from Powell Valley Healthcare, who made balloon animals for his upset children out of latex gloves in the ambulance.

“That was super nice,” Gunn said.

While Sunday’s flooding caused a mess at his property on Lane 14, Gunn said he’d take that “any day over what we just went through.”

He added that, “with the current weather pattern we have, anything’s possible.”

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