A lightning strike is believed to have caused an early morning fire which destroyed the Jeff and Jackie Wisdom family’s split-level, brick-front home at Peaceful Valley Lake.

OWENSVILLE POLICE hold up a large blue tarp Tuesday evening to shield passing motor-ists from the transfer of the recovered body to an Owensville ambulance. County deputies and Owensville firemen assisted Coroner Ben Grosse (second from right) in the recovery.

No one was home at the time the fire was reported, just before 10 a.m., and the Wisdoms said that may have saved their daughters’ lives. Two of the family’s dogs perished in the blaze which gutted the home. “It’s hard to see your children in so much pain,” said Jeff Wisdom as he surveyed the damage to their home in the 1500 block of Villa Vista.

“It had such a jump on us,” said a frustrate Owensville Fire Chief Jeff Kuhne. Firemen reported seeing heavy black smoke rising over the upper end of the lake community shortly after turning onto Route Y. Fire was already coming through the roof when firemen had lines charged and began battling the blaze.

Kuhne said an investigation by the Missouri State Fire Marshal’s Office “can’t rule out (a) lightning strike.”

Wisdom said it was storming with heavy lightning when he awoke at 3:30 a.m. and  when he left for work by 5:30. Due to the continuing storms, his wife awoke their two school-age daughters before she left for work at about 7:45 and took them to stay with her adult daughter in town.

The floor sill was burned out below where the home’s power supply entered the structure and connected with the breaker box in the basement. Kuhne said a section of the floor sill measuring between 24 and 28-inches wide was completely burned through at the floor line. The investigation revealed the fire appears to have started with a lighting strike which burned into the floor. The fire spread up inside the back wall and into the attic. It had apparently been smoldering for some time, said Kuhne. Heavily wooded lots surrounding the home likely kept neighbors from noticing the fire until it began burning through the back wall and into the roofline.

Firemen from Bland, Belle, Hermann’s station at Swiss provided tanker and manpower support at the scene. Gerald-Rosebud firemen stood by in Owensville’s station during the call. Owensville fireman Jeff Limberg was treated at a local doctor’s office for second-degree burns to his neck suffered when burning debris fell down the back of his turnout coat.

A fund for the Wisdom family has been established at First State Community Bank of Owensville.