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Lightning-sparked fire destroys Castlegar-area outbuilding

Lightning appears to be to blame for a fire that burned a building in the 1800 block of Robson Access Road early Wednesday.

Robson fire chief Jeff Grant said they were called at about 12:15 a.m. and arrived to find the outbuilding of about 20 by 30 feet ablaze.

“It was a fairly large building, fairly close by to a lot of structures,” he said. “Luckily, our first engine was quick to the scene and was able to get a really good knock on the fire right away. We managed to confine it to the structure itself.”

Grant said getting water was a challenge because there are no hydrants in the area.

Their preliminary investigation suggests lightning struck a tree adjacent to the structure and started it on fire. “It was a pretty weird event,” Grant said. “We don’t see a lot of fires started that way.”

The outbuilding was a total loss, although Grant is not sure of its value and didn’t know what was stored inside. “It was pretty hard to tell. There wasn’t much left after we put it out.”

About 20 firefighters from the Robson and Pass Creek fire departments responded and were on scene until about 4:45 a.m.

No one was hurt.

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