By Michelle Hunter
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Copyright 2006 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
Two firefighters were injured in an Old Metairie blaze that was sparked by lightning during a thunderstorm Tuesday afternoon.
The unidentified firefighters were taken to East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie, where one was treated for burns to his wrist and the other for burns to the tips of his ears, said George Rigamer, spokesman for the East Bank Consolidated Fire Department. Their conditions were not available.
No one else was injured in the fire at 100 Homestead Ave. A mother, a baby-sitter and three children were in the house when the lightning struck, but were able to escape, Rigamer said.
The fire began just after 3 p.m. A next-door neighbor told fire investigators he was sitting in his den watching the lightning strikes get closer when he heard a loud boom overhead, Rigamer said. The man inspected his own house, believing it had been hit. Then he noticed his neighbor’s home was on fire, Rigamer said.
The Fire Department received the first call for help at 3:12 p.m. None of the family members was identified, but Rigamer said the mother was on the first floor with one child while the baby-sitter was on the second floor with the two others. Rigamer said they were all pretty shaken by the afternoon’s events.
The fire is believed to have started in the attic and spread to the second floor, heavily damaging both, Rigamer said. Firefighters had the blaze under control by 3:34 p.m. Rigamer estimated the damage to be about $250,000.