Lake home destroyed by lightning

A house on Boucher Road in Watten Township, near Nickel Lake, was struck by lighting and burned to the ground around noon Friday.
The Watten volunteer fire department battled the blaze, with assistance from the Couchiching Fire Department under a “mutual need request.”
The roof was fully engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived, sources said this morning.
The home could not be saved but firefighters prevented the blaze from spreading into the surrounding bush.
Fort Frances Fire Chief Gerry Armstrong was notified that a “mutual need request” was required to battle the flames.
“In Watten Township, because it’s not incorporated territory, the MNR didn’t respond because it wasn’t a bush, brush, or grass fire and it wasn’t a structure fire that was threatening the bush area,” Chief Armstrong said.
“Generally, if you get a lightning fire, because it’s readily ventilated in the attic area, the area of origin, because they’re perhaps in an area with more oxygen, the fire can grow quickly,” he explained.
“A fire is a fire, but if it’s more contained inside a building, it has less opportunity to grow as quickly.”
The only recognizable items were a stove and various other appliances that were charred. Detritus and a pile of blackened wood is all that remains of the house.
A stoned pathway was left unmarked leading towards what once was the front door of the home backing onto Morand Bay of Rainy Lake.
Local resident Kim Roy, who has two cottages in the area, has seen the effects of lightning.
A tree very near his cottage was split in half when struck by lightning. The tree smoldered for weeks afterwards and if it wasn’t tended to, it likely would have started a fire.
Roy continuously doused the tree with buckets of water and, years later, where the lightning struck is still very apparent on the 200-year-old tree.
“That’s how forest fires are started,” he noted.
His cabin, which he’s been going to every weekend in the summer, is his second home. To lose something so important to a family is something he can sympathize with.
The owners of the home could not be reached for comment.