Lightning to blame for structure fire

Image 1 of 2

Austin Firefighters believe lightning is to blame for several structure fires that broke out on Friday night. The storms kept crews busy and created difficult conditions.

"The first was burning through the roof when I got here," said AFD Battalion Chief Randell Nations. Nations was the first to arrive to a house fire on Champ Court in North Austin. It was one of at least six structure fires.

While the fire calls were going out AFD also received multiple low water rescue calls from people stranded in water.

"It was a long time for units to get here. We have units from all over the city and county," said Nations. Together, they put out the fire and took a defensive approach because it had burned too hot for too long.

The weather made it difficult to move crews around the city.

"It complicates things. We had a rain bomb. It took units a long time to respond and made everything real busy. Our response time is normally two to four minutes and it took 20 to 25 minutes to get units in place and it was hard to operate once we were on scene because the rain was coming down so hard," said Nations.

No one was home at the time of the fire including the owner's pet.