UPDATE @ 9:40 a.m. March 15
Greenville fire officials have determined the house fire on North Chippewa Drive was started by a bolt of lightning.
The fire caused an estimated $35,000 in damage.
EARLIER March 14
A property owner southeast of Arcanum came home to find some of his outbuildings flattened, and a home in Greenville was heavily damaged by fire that may have been ignited by lightning.
Pete Hines said he was in Centerville Monday afternoon when heard about a possible tornado heading northeast from West Alexandria in Preble County.
A short time later he got a call from the Arcanum fire chief, informing him of the damages on his property.
Hines said he was most concerned about his horses and dogs.
“We have two very good horses that were in the barn that was flattened, but fortunately the stall portion of the barn is intact,” Hines said.
Hines’ dogs were in their kennels, but that building also stayed intact.
“Everything else is pretty much gone,” he said.
That includes a 60-by-80-foot indoor exercise arena for his horses, which was completely flattened.
Debris from his property was stuck in trees and blown across the roadway.
“It left metal as much as two miles away,” Hines said. “Those were probably about 40- or 50-foot long sheets.”
Hines said his son and wife were at work and no one was home when the reported tornado passed through the area.
“I’m thankful in a way,” he said. “Everything here can be replaced but it’s going to be a lot of work … This is just another one of those humbling experiences where you start over.”
In Greenville a house in the 1300 block of North Chippewa Drive was heavily damaged by a fire that appears to have started in the attic.
The fire broke out just as the Tornado Warning was going into effect about mid-afternoon Monday.
Fire officials there said the fire was possibly sparked from a bolt of lightning. They were investigating to determine the exact cause.
