MOUNT VERNON — A lightning strike during the heavy storm Monday night set fire to a Shalimar apartment building at 39 Plaza Drive. The Mount Vernon Fire Department got the call a resident smelled smoke and Capt. Joe Jurkowitz went to investigate.
He located the source of the smoke in the roof of the building. The department was responding to the call and was immediately on the scene at 10:22 p.m. Assistant Fire Chief Chris Menapace said firefighters confined the fire to two of the four apartments with damage to the roof.
Firefighters had the fire out in 15 minutes, Menapace said. The families in the apartments were able to find shelter with relatives, he said. There is no estimate of damage.
MOUNT VERNON — Knox County was hit with the summer’s first big storm Monday night, quickly flickering the power across the county and knocking it out for approximately 500 customers.
According to AEP Ohio spokesperson Tammy Rideout, 475 customers lost power around 10:30 p.m. due to an equipment failure in the Millwood area. Most of those customers were back online just after midnight.
Fifteen customers remain without power as of 8 a.m.
An auto accident took out an electric pole around midnight shutting down power to 406 customers on the Danville-Millwood circuit. Power to those customers was restored by 6:20 this morning, according to Rideout.
At the height of the storm, Consolidated Electric Cooperative had a total of 144 customers without power, said Pam Hawk, vice president of marketing and member services. As of 8:25 a.m., only three customers remained without power.
A call to The Energy Cooperative was unreturned at press time.
