Lightning sparks house fire in Lawrence during early storms

Lightning from a fast-moving storm system sparked a house fire in Lawrence before sunrise Tuesday, adding one more emergency to a morning that had already brought tornado warnings, sirens and dozens of weather-related calls across Douglas County.

The fire broke out in the 100 block of Lawrence Avenue and was reported at 6:18 a.m. Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical crews arrived by 6:22 a.m. and found flames in the roof and eaves of the home. Firefighters had the blaze under control by 6:38 a.m., limiting the damage and keeping the situation from spreading further into the neighborhood.

No one inside the home was injured or forced to leave, although one firefighter was treated at the scene for minor injuries. Fire officials said the house fire was one of 28 weather-related calls the department handled during the early-morning storms, many tied to electrical hazards as the county dealt with lightning, wind and heavy weather in quick succession.

The fire came after the National Weather Service in Topeka issued a tornado warning shortly after midnight for Lawrence, Eudora and parts of rural Douglas County. County sirens sounded from 12:13 until 12:23 a.m. in Lawrence, Lone Star, Pleasant Grove, Lecompton, Eudora and Clinton, and the warning expired at 12:24 a.m.

Douglas County Emergency Management has stressed that the sirens are intended primarily for people outdoors and should not be the only warning method for anyone inside a home. Officials have urged residents to rely on additional alerts, including the Northeast Kansas Regional Notification System and Wireless Emergency Alerts, especially during overnight storms when many people are asleep and may miss a siren or a weather radio.

The same storm system caused other damage across Lawrence, including downed trees and property damage, and meteorologists were still reviewing the area to determine whether a tornado had touched down. For county emergency agencies, the morning showed how quickly severe weather can stack up into a chain of calls, from warning sirens to fire response to damage assessment before daybreak.

It also came just days after Douglas County emergency response agencies moved into the new Public Safety Building at 3601 E. 25th St., where a storm-hardened shelter surrounds much of the Emergency Communications and Emergency Management space with 12 inches of concrete. County officials said the building was designed to give staff a safer base during severe weather season, a reminder that the county’s readiness is now part of the response when storms turn dangerous.