Lightning claims Bella Vista home
Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008
BELLA VISTA - Officials with the Bella Vista Fire Department have concluded that lightning caused a fire Thursday morning that severely damaged a house at 5 Lambeth Circle.
About 7 a. m., lightning hit the top of a propane tank buried in the yard of the residence, Bella Vista Fire Chief Steve Sims said. The electrical charge followed the gas lines into the house and to a furnace, where the propane line exploded, he said.
Homeowner Sandra Sandlin credits her dog, Hunter, with saving her life.
Just before the lightning struck, Sandlin had been playing a game in the basement near the furnace, she said. Her dog started whining, so she took him outside just minutes before the explosion.
If she hadn't taken the dog out, she could have been seriously hurt, she said.
"He's our hero," said her husband, Charlie Sandlin. The couple adopted Hunter, a Rottweiler-dachshund mix, about three months ago from Save Our Strays.
When Sandra Sandlin stepped back into the house, she was interrupted by a knock on the front door.
"Justin (Hammer ) was bringing my grandbaby to me. (The lightning ) struck 20 feet away."
Hammer, the Sandlins' son-in-law, was carrying his 4-year-old son Riley in a car seat, said Hammer's wife, Trisha Hammer. When he heard the strike, Justin Hammer ducked down and covered the child.
The heat from the explosion singed the hair on Justin Hammer's hand, he said.
"It all happened in a split second," said Zack Sandlin, the homeowners' 13-yearold son.
The resulting fire started in the basement and worked its way up the walls into the attic. The floors in the house are now unstable, and the bathroom floor is nonexistent, Charlie Sandlin said.
"It's pretty much shot," he said.
One of the closets held the family's gun collection. While several guns were saved, some special ones were lost. Sandra Sandlin lost the gun given to her by her father, who passed away last year, Trisha Hammer said.
"I lost the first gun my dad bought me and the first gun I ever bought on my own," Charlie Sandlin said. "It's everything."
He had been at work in Gravette at Amark Engineering and Manufacturing when his wife called him in hysterics. "I just left work. I don't even remember if I clocked out."
Since the house is so badly damaged, the family will probably be staying in Bentonville with Charlie Sandlin's parents, Lee and Charles Sandlin.
Neighbors provided coffee and comfort to the family during the disaster.
"Every fireman is here," neighbor Bill Meskill said. "If (Bella Vista has ) another fire, we do not have the men to cover it."
When the alarm went out at the fire station, seven firefighters and two trucks answered the call, Sims said. After calling in all available off-duty firefighters, 16 men arrived at the scene.
At one point, firefighters had to be called out of the house because of concerns about the floors falling, Battalion Chief Bryan Wolfgang said.
"The firemen had the fire out in 36 minutes," Sims said. "Bella Vista has a good fire department. They got guys who do an amazing job."
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