Mt. Vernon Register-News

Local

October 8, 2008

Litton Ambulance struck by lightning

By TESA CULLI

tesa.culli@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — No calls were missed and systems are back online after lightning struck Litton Ambulance just before 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

“It sounded like a bomb going off,” owner Angie Litton said. “At first, I didn’t know what happened.”

What happened was a thunderstorm produced lightning that struck the radio tower at the ambulance service, blowing apart cables leading into the business, the electrical lines and sparking a small fire where those lines entered the building.

Litton said rain from the storm extinguished the fire, although there was some smoke inside the building.

“I immediately called the police station and 911,” Litton said.

The emergency service has two backup generators and those were used to bring up lights and computers. Some computers were blown from the force of the electrical surge, but others came on fine, she said.

Through her communications to other emergency agencies, Litton said all emergency radio calls were transferred to a phone line, and she began contacting hospitals and other agencies that regularly call the ambulance service. Radios were back online within two hours of the lightning strike, she said.

Litton said had 911 been unable to reroute the radio calls, plans had previously been made to set up a dispatch area in the 911 center at the Jefferson County Justice Center that would have been used to keep the emergency ambulance service going.

The strike was powerful enough to burn out the switches in the power box, and AmerenIP worked to rewire the box and signed off on it. Litton said an electrician would be going over the entire electrical system Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday.

“We were very lucky,” Litton said. “And everyone that responded was right here and got things back up quickly. Motorola was right here and got all our radios back ... everyone was great.”

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