BEECH MOUNTAIN, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A lightning strike is to blame for a fire at Beech Mountain Sunday morning that destroyed two slope-side condos.
“I come down every couple of hours just to look at it because I just can’t believe that it is completely leveled,” Trey DeWolf said.
In between runs on Beech Mountain’s fresh snow, DeWolf relives a morning he won’t forget.
“[I’m} happy it didn’t go further than it did, and I am super sorry for loss people have suffered,” he said.
Early Sunday morning, DeWolf was woken up by the sound of several lightning strikes. One of them hitting the wooden porch of a condominium yards from his parent’s rental property on Wedling Weg.
“[I] put pants on and ran down and when I got there, there was about 4-5 feet of one of the decks on fire,” DeWolf said. “I just started banging on all of the doors to get everybody up and awake and out of there.”
In total, he said three people were inside of the condos at the time – all making it out safely before the fire spread, leveling nearly half of the building.
“All four propane tanks had lit, and they were just shooting flames straight up in the air that just accelerated all of the outside building catching fire,” he said.
The fire spread to three cars still parked outside Monday as fire crews continued to spray water on hot spots on a pit of debris where two condos used to stand.
“I’ve never seen any kind of wildfire besides on the news…I can’t believe how fast it spread,” DeWolf said.
According to the NC Forest Service, wildfires sparked by lightning strikes are rare. North Carolina sees about 45 lightning-related wildfires a year, making up less than 1% of wildfires that take place across the state.
