SOFD, SORS Assisted at Maplewood Home Struck by Lightning

Update: Maplewood Fire Department Captain Joseph Callaghan confirms that lightning struck a home on Meadowbrook Road in Maplewoo on Monday evening, resulting in a fire with heavy smoke. Callaghan also reports that there was a teenaged girl home at the time who was unaware that her house was on fire. Said Callaghan, "The firefighter making a forcible entry scared her half to death." The structure suffered heavy fire damage to the roof attic area and is uninhabitable. There were no injuries sustained in the fire.

"It was a black wall of smoke coming at us," said a resident of Orchard Road in Maplewood. She was talking about the sudden fire that occurred on Meadowbrook Road just two blocks east around 6 p.m. Monday.

Maplewood, Union, South Orange and Millburn fire departments responded to the fire. The South Orange Rescue Squad was on site. Around 6:25 p.m., several fire personnel ran for their vehicles and sped around the corner to Orchard Road  A Union fire official later said that the Orchard Road call was a false alarm—residents thought the smoke from Meadowbrook Road indicated a fire in their own home.

Neighbors reported a "tremendous" crash of thunder and blinding lightning that occurred simultaneously. Soon after, smoke engulfed the neighborhood. The smell of the smoke and haze were apparent almost a half mile west of the fire around 6:15 p.m. A fire official said that high humidity and low cloud ceiling contributed to the reach of the burning odor and the smoke.

The fire appeared to be under control by 6:40 p.m.