KPLC-TV
A lightning strike caused a rumble through the Ward 6 Fire Station at 108 Marcantel Rd. on Wednesday Jan. 24, and it was all caught on their security camera.
“I had the volume up on the video, and whenever it happened, it was so loud and the flash was so loud inside the station that it was startling, and I’m just thankful we had nobody there at that time of the night and nobody was injured,” Ward 6 District 1 Fire Chief Todd Parker said.
Parker said the strike has caused some damage to the station’s backup radio system, tower lighting controls, the radio repeater, alphanumeric paging system used to notify the firefighters and their electronic fueling system.
“Our estimate on the damage is probably going to be 40-50 thousand dollars by the time we replace all the radio equipment, our repeater system, our control lighting for the tower,” Parker said.
In the meantime, Parker said the station will have to find alternative ways to keep up.
“We had to go to our backup fuel and to utilize our local service station, so we’re just utilizing other means to communicate to our firefighters so they know when to respond,” Parker said.
He said none of the fire trucks were damaged and the station’s response time would not be affected.
The station is expected to be running like normal in a couple of months, once the repairs are complete.
