Storms Produce Strong Winds, Hail

It was truly a dark and stormy night in the Rockbridge area Monday, complete with strong winds, lightning and hail – and a house fire that involved nearly every fire company in the county.

Severe storms rolled in from the west as darkness approached Monday with winds that knocked down trees and branches throughout the area. Firefighters would eventually respond to 23 calls for trees down in roadways through several rounds of storms overnight.

That first round also caused power outages, with over 1,100 area customers without power as of 9:20 p.m., according to FindEnergy.com, a service that compiles power outage numbers in different localities. There were less than 30 still without power by mid-morning Tuesday.

Those evening storms also brought hail to various areas of the county. Andrew Carter reported that while he was exiting Interstate 64 at Goshen and getting onto Brattons Run Road, hail covered the roadway and busted his windshield.

While there were two vehicle accidents Monday evening, only one was weather-related, according to Nathan Ramsey, Rockbridge fire-rescue chief. That accident apparently involved a vehicle striking a downed tree on U.S. 11 in the Timber Ridge area.

As the storms crossed the area, they also interfered with – for perhaps a total of 20 minutes – firefighting operations at the scene of a house fire in the Irish Creek area.

That call, at 150 Aisling Way, had come in about 5:20 p.m. for a structure fire with flames showing. The first units arrived and found heavy fire throughout a log cabin structure with collapse, according to Ramsey.

The house, a vacation retreat home for the owners and their families, was not occupied.

Crews performed defensive operations and first worked on keeping the advancing fire from going into the woods, he said. Once that fire was knocked down, crews concentrated efforts on the structure and knocked the bulk of the fire down.

Ramsey said because there are no fire hydrants in the area, tanker trucks from departments throughout the county were brought in to provide water.

The extended overhaul operations that evening, including tackling hot spots, were paused several times because of hail and lightning from the storms, reported Ramsey. He said crews wrapped up after 11 p.m.

Departments responding to the fire included South River Fire, Buena Vista Fire, Raphine Fire, Fairfield Rescue, Lexington Fire, Kerrs Creek Fire, Glasgow Fire, Rockbridge Baths Fire, Natural Bridge Fire, Walkers Creek Fire, Rockbridge County Fire-Rescue and Montebello Fire. Goshen Fire stood by at South River fire station.