Town of Sandy Creek, NY – Lightning is believed to have started a fire that destroyed a 150-year-old abandoned farmhouse and threatened -- but ultimately did not touch -- a garage filled with antique machinery, Sandy Creek Fire Chief Dale Thomas said. The alarm was called into Oswego County 911 about 10:48 p.m Tuesday. The area was experiencing a thunderstorm...
Town of Sandy Creek, NY – Lightning is believed to have started a fire that destroyed a 150-year-old abandoned farmhouse and threatened -- but ultimately did not touch -- a garage filled with antique machinery, Sandy Creek Fire Chief Dale Thomas said.
The alarm was called into Oswego County 911 about 10:48 p.m Tuesday. The area was experiencing a thunderstorm and neighbors heard a tremendous crash before the fire erupted at the house at 132 Wood Road, Thomas said.
“The house, by the time we got there, was in the sky – it was gone,” Thomas said.
Firefighters turned their attention to saving the nearby garage, where the owners of the house, the Wood family, stored a 1957 Chevrolet car, a 1958 Chevy and antique farm equipment, Thomas said. The garage was untouched, he said.
The house, a 2 ½ -story structure that county assessment records indicate was built in 1860, had been unoccupied for at least 15 years, Thomas said.
No one was hurt fighting the fire, Thomas said. The Sandy Creek, Orwell, Richland, Pulaski, Mannsville and Lacona departments responded and Mexico sent a rapid intervention team, he said.