High school student reports smoke after lightning sparks blaze near fire station
BATON ROUGE - A local high school student is receiving praise from fire crews after reporting smoke at a building just two doors down from a fire station.
According to the St. George Fire Protection District, a lightning strike caused a fire at a building on Highlandia Drive, just two doors down from Fire Station #68.
A local high school student was the first to spot smoke coming from the roof of the building, and reported it directly to firefighters at the station. Fire crews were able to contain the blaze within five minutes.
The small commercial structure was vacant at the time, and received damage to the roof and second floor.
No injuries were reported.
"Our thanks, and I'm sure the property owner's thanks as well, go out to the young man who reported the fire instead of just continuing on his way," St. George said in a press release.
The fire district says crews responded to 11 emergency calls between the hours of 5:15 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, most of which were weather related.