Following a loud thunder clap Tuesday morning, Cheryl Wilson stepped outside on check on her neighbor’s property. What she saw was smoke coming from the building she had been in at 3700 Highway MM in Hannibal. Her quick discovery of the fire probably prevented major damage from occurring in the structure.
Wilson says she was startled by the thunderclap that occurred around 8 a.m.
“Oh, my gosh. It was really loud,” she said.
The only person in the building at the time, Wilson decided to see what might have been hit by lightning.
“Actually I was more concerned about the neighbors next door because I know there are some elderly people over there and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t their duplexes,” she said. “I just saw smoke. It was hanging over the trees and I thought, ‘Uh oh.’ I walked out a little further and I thought, ‘Well, that’s us.’ I called 911.”
Building owner Mark Danner was thankful that someone was there to notice the problem.
“It could be a lot worse,” he said.
Firefighters were on the scene for approximately 2 1/2 hours.
“The problem that we had was making sure we had it completely out,” said Deputy Fire Chief Bill Madore. “We had fire in the attic in the insulation. The possibility of rekindling if we don’t have it completely extinguished is pretty great. We have to take the time to make sure we have that fire completely out and that’s exactly what we did.”
By late morning personnel were allowed back in the building, which is the headquarters of White Oak Counseling.
“The damage inside is very minimal. I’m very happy with our firefighters’ efforts to conserve the property the best they can. I felt they did a really nice job,” said Madore. “I think the owner was pleasantly surprised.”
