Lambert Road home catches fire after lightning strike

SHARON — A house at 106 Lambert Road caught fire Thursday afternoon, April 28. The house is owned by Patricia Braunsdorf. The fire was reported by a neighbor at 3:09 p.m., according to Sharon Fire Marshal Stan MacMillan. It caused severe damage to the structure. The fire started after lightning struck a tree, about 50 feet from the house. It then traveled across the yard along a plastic drain line, came up a downspout and across the gutters on one side of the home and down a downspout on the other side. It then entered the house on one side and, on the other side, hit a propane line that led into the house. The center portion of the L-shaped home ignited. The propane line had been shut off, according to MacMillan, but there was some residual gas in it. The fire destroyed the family room, dining room and parts of the kitchen. The bedrooms, garage and some of the kitchen were saved from the fire. At the time of the fire, no one was home: Braunsdorf had left earlier in the day to go on a vacation. It took about an hour for fire company volunteers to contain the blaze. They had to travel down the road and around the corner and truck in water from a pond on the Keeler Road property of Harry Hall. Hall, a retired engineer and the former chairman of the town’s Sewer and Water Commission, created the pond when he moved onto the property. Hall saw the fire and said the tree that had originally been struck scattered bark from its trunk more than 20 feet away. The plastic drain line along which the lightning had traveled to the home had been “blown every which way,” according to Hall. Braunsdorf purchased the property in 1988 with her late husband, Eugene. The house was built in 1989.

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