Spring Break
Lightning may be cause of house fire
Josh Smith
Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: News
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Firefighters told renter Kristin Bagniewski, a senior at UW-Whitewater, lightning may have struck the DLK house causing the fire.
"All they know is that the house may have been hit by lightning," Bagniewski said. "It supposedly hit the top of the house in the middle."
The second floor caught fire including two bedrooms, a bathroom and a stairwell.
"Everything on the top floor was ruined," Bagniewski said. "One bedroom had a bed and a destroyed computer desk. I'm not sure if anything is water damaged."
There were six fire trucks from three communities along with ambulances and police cars along the road. More than 20 firefighters were on the scene to put out the fire.
Bagniewski and her roommate Michelle Freeman are both seniors at UW-Whitewater. They had just moved in one month earlier because of flood damage to their previous DLK residence next door where they had lived with four other people.
Both commute frequently from their home town Janesville, and is the reason no one was home at the time of the fire.
Neighbor Stephanie Serguson did not hear anything indicating a fire next door. She became aware of the incident when police came to the door to make sure she was alright.
"I came out and all I saw was smoke," Serguson said. "Every house had people outside of it. Other than the storm I didn't hear anything."
Despite all that had happened Bagniewski was relieved.
"The first thing I thought of was, I'm glad no one was in the house," Bagniewski said.
She said she was comfortable knowing her roommate was safe out celebrating her birthday with her boyfriend.
"We just had to laugh about it," Bagniewski said. "We lived through some trying times [in the dorms]. We feel like we keep moving from place to place and don't have somewhere to call home yet."
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