GRAYSON COUNTY, Ky. (WDRB) -- In what's normally a peaceful vacation retreat in rural Kentucky, people ran out of their homes Wednesday afternoon with garden hoses and buckets, trying to stop a fire that was spreading in the high winds of an arriving storm.
Several homes along Ponderosa Street, just yards from Nolin Lake, were leveled in the flames. Strong winds that caused power outages over several different states picked up the flames and carried them from trees to homes and outbuildings.
David Strader, chief of the volunteer fire department in Wax, Kentucky, said it took 21 volunteer firefighters from nine or 10 departments to get the fire under control.
"It started out — best I can get so far — with an explosion in the first structure," Strader said. "And it spread rapidly to others.”
Strader and his team joined forestry officials Thursday on the street, assessing the damage. As a lakefront vacation community, many of the homes were empty given the weather. But Strader estimates seven to eight homes and 10-12 outbuildings were damaged.
"I can’t believe we’re not talking about loss of life, which thank God we did not have that, and that we’re not talking about losing 30 homes, 40 homes," Grayson County Judge Executive Kevin Henderson said.
Strader said at one point, flames were ripping through dead trees 60 feet off the ground.
"Winds were blowing 60-70 mph yesterday afternoon," he said. "I’ve been volunteering for about 36 years, and this is the first one I’ve seen do this."
At one point Thursday, Strader was emotional, thanking nearby departments for rushing to provide aid and limit the damage.
"We had a lot of good help from our mutual aid departments," he said.
In addition to the fire departments, neighbors also jumped in to help. Amy Goss, who lives across the street from where the fire started, said she was thankfully home at the time and started running outside with buckets of water and hoses.
"We couldn’t do anything for the house that was on fire, but the houses next door, the leaves were starting to burn and they were starting to spread," she said.
Goss' home surveillance camera captured video of the flames across the street. At one point, the landscaping in her yard started to catch on fire.
"The shrubs were on fire," she said. "Even our neighbors' homes, we were putting out fires in their gutters because the leaves were catching on fire and the corners of the houses were catching on fire."
One person was hospitalized Wednesday and treated for smoke inhalation.
"When I got here, when I arrived, it looked like a war zone," Henderson said. "You couldn't see anything, I mean it was everywhere. Fire was everywhere. The trees were on fire."
Strader said he's confident the community will rebuild.
Copyright 2022 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
