[Press Release] : 1000 South Providence fire caused by Sunday's storms

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Battalion Chief Steven Sapp - (573) 874-7557 

1000 South Providence fire caused by Sunday's storms

COLUMBIA, MO (March 16, 2006) -- Columbia fire investigators have
determined the cause of the fire at the Southwest Campus Housing
building at 1000 South Providence Road was caused by a lightning strike.
Fire investigators found a damaged lightning arrester on the roof and
multiple failure points of the cable which connects the lightning
arrestors. 

The buildings have lightning rods installed on the roofs and those are
connected to a cable which will eventually ground the lightning
arresting system. The lightning rods and cable were in place; however
the grounding of the system had not occurred during the current
construction phase. 

Fire investigators determined through examination of physical evidence
and with help from the University Department of Atmospheric Science that
lightning struck the building around 3:50 p.m. on Sunday, March 12. The
strike damaged the lightning arrestors and associated cable. Because the
grounding was not completed, high amounts of heat were generated,
causing the wooden rood trusses to begin to smolder. This smoldering
continued until conditions were right for the fire to break out. 

Fire needs three things; heat, fuel and air. In this case, the heat was
generated by the lightning strike. The fuel is the wood trusses in the
roof. The amount of available air was limited as this occurred in an
enclosed attic space. Sometime on Wednesday, conditions changed to allow
more air to circulate through the attic area and the heat build up after
days of smoldering caused the fire to break out. The exact cause of the
changes, or exactly how they occurred, will probably never be known. 

Damage estimates are being complied by the University and the general
contractor and will not be known until Monday. The contractor has stated
that the fire and associated damage will not delay the opening of the
building to students, scheduled for the fall of 2006.

During the fire, the Boone County Fire Protection District provided
automatic aid and staffed two Columbia fire stations to provide
emergency services while Columbia fire units were assigned to the 2nd
alarm fire. BCFPD units were released after about 30 minutes after the
callback of off-duty Columbia firefighters provided adequate staffing
levels. 

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