Salem barn destroyed by fire following lightning strike

Jul. 21—Ed Immel was getting ready for bed on Thursday night when a loud clap nearly shook him out from under the covers.

"I thought it was just thunder," he said.

A few minutes later, he saw a dull orange glow out the window and knew that his barn was on fire.

The bolt that sparked the flames in Immel's barn, on Kovacs Lane in Salem Township, was just one of nearly 3,000 that hit the ground across the area Thursday night, as heavy thunderstorms cut power, brought down trees and lit up the sky like a second Fourth of July.

The National Weather Service issued several flash flood and severe weather warnings as the storms moved through.

"We recorded 2,902 lightning strikes that reached the ground," NWS meteorologist Lee Hendricks said. "During the 15-minute peak, which was between 10-10:30 p.m., we recorded 10,851 pulses."

During the peak, Hendricks said the storm stretched from Columbus, Ohio, up to Indiana, Pa.

A satellite-based program allows meteorologists in the NWS Pittsburgh office to use sensors to detect and quantify the negative and positive lightning strikes. It also allows them to differentiate between bolts that reach the ground and those that fire within or between clouds.

One of the strikes to reach the ground did so through Immel's barn, built in the 1970s. It housed more than 20 snowmobiles, several boats and a large number of antiques and tools. Immel said they were all lost in the fire, which was still burning in several places at 10:30 a.m. Friday morning.

"There must have been a half-dozen fire companies here," Immel said. "The flames were about 200 feet in the air and they had to use so much water, it was like a river running down the yard. It washed out part of (Kovacs Lane)."

The barn is surrounded by several tall pines, all of which were scorched and blackened to a height of 50 feet or more.

"I was afraid one of the burning trees was going to fall on my house," Immel said. His home is set into the hillside just below the barn.

While National Weather Service officials said the most damaging winds from the storm system were concentrated closer to the I-80 corridor to the north, the storm left thousands without power, with the largest number of customers Friday morning belonging to West Penn Power. About 1,600 Westmoreland County residents were still without electricity as of 8 a.m. Friday morning.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .