Last Thursday was a first for Emergency Services Director Robert Gregory. After 26 years in the fire service he can’t recall a time when two houses (on Jefferson Road and Henderson Avenue) were hit by lighting within a 20-minute period. While he remembers previous fires that were caused by lightning strikes, it was “nothing like what took place last week” between 5:30 and 6 p.m.

As if two lightning strikes weren’t enough,Кa more destructive August 1 house fire on Herrontown Road was also found to have been caused by lightning that, according to Mr. Gregory, “traveled to the attic space starting the roof on fire.КThe PFD (Princeton Fire Department) made a good stop and the residents sent a very nice letter thanking the department.”КThe residents had been on vacation at the time and had to cut it short and head home.

At around 3:30 p.m. Monday lightning struck again, metaphorically, when the lights went out for shoppers in McCaffrey’s and other businesses in the Princeton Shopping Center. According to McCaffrey’s store manager Steve Carney, the three-hour outage was apparently caused by a tree that had fallen into one of three major feeder lines on Harrison Street, pulling the other ones down. Thanks to a back-up generator, shoppers at the market were still able, in effect, to shop by candlelight until the doors closed at 6 p.m.

“We were tested on Thursday,” said Mr. Gregory, “and all services did a great job in meeting response needs. I also think it worth mentioning that there were no injuries and that the Mercer County mutual aid system worked seamlessly. With all Princeton units committed to the first fire on Jefferson, we had to rely on aid from other towns at the Henderson Avenue fire.КI was on my way to the Jefferson Road fire when the second call came in and I diverted to the other one. We had Mercer County fire dispatch, companies from Plainsboro, Lawrence, and Rocky Hill fire departments, first aid, police, and fire police working at multiple incidents. Chief Tomalin did a great job coordinating responses from multiple departments to mitigate the incidents. There was also a four-car accident in town in the middle of both fires, handled by Princeton First Aid and Rescue along with West Windsor and Montgomery emergency services.”

The Henderson Avenue home was occupied by an elderly resident who was inside at the time. Although she was not injured, her attic and roof were significantly damaged by fire, and she and her two cats have relocated with the help of family. Mr. Gregory identified the woman as Gloria Woodside and said that she has gone to stay with her son in Lawrence.

A Gem in the Making

The house at 119 Jefferson was unoccupied, having been for some time undergoing renovation. The sign in front refers to the contractor, Krazy-Dave, who is, in fact, the house’s owner, David August, 42, a professor of computer science at Princeton University who says the lightning strike is actually the second blow that has fallen on that side of the house. “A big limb came down in a storm a year ago and crushed the sun room roof.”

Thursday’s lightning did comparatively little damage. Mr. August thinks the spray foam insulation may have slowed it. The most visible evidence of lightning’s presence was a missing hunk of insulation and one charred beam. Alerted by a call from neighbors who saw plumes of smoke pouring out of both sides of the roof, Mr. August was also notified by a security device that he says pin-pointed the moment at 5:32. He describes the incident as “a two-month set-back.”

Judging from the quality of the interior workmanship, when Mr. August finally moves in with his wife and two children, he will be living in an Arts and Crafts dream house.

Lightning Rods?

Yes, Mr. August checked into the possibility of lightning rods and said that studies seem to show that they can make a difference. Asked if there had been an increase in calls since the Thursday’s double lightning strike, a technician with Zeus Lightning Rods said there is always a jump in the number of calls after reports of lightning strikes. He was on his way to one of two houses in Bucks County that had been hit in a recent storm. While he has found that primarily high-end homeowners consider installing lightning protection during construction, he suggested that interested homeowners should contact The Lightning Protection Institute for information, including a list of approved installers (www.lightning.org).