SHAMOKIN TOWNSHIP - Don't tell Earl Ashton lightning doesn't strike twice.
For the second time in recent years, a bolt of lightning hit Ashton's home on Fig Road atop a hill in a remote section of Irish Valley during a storm around 10 p.m. Sunday, filling the dwelling with smoke.
"It was a frightening experience, like a ball of fire coming down the chimnney," Ashton said outside the sprawing log-cabin type home. "We were in the living room when it happened. My first thought was to get the family out."
While calls were placed to radio communications for assistance, Ashton and a neighbor, identified as Daniel Shingara, used small fire extinuishers to contain the fire to the chimney area, sparing other sections of the massive home.
Firefighters from Stonington, Overlook and Elysburg were initially dispatched but a second alarm of "a working structure fire" resulted in additional equipment being dispatched from Coal Township and Shamokin under a mutual aid agreement. Also dispatched were rescue personnel from Eysburg and Coal Township, AREA Services and Stonington fire police.
Fire crews had a difficult time reaching the scene with their heavy equipment due to winding, single lane, unpaved roads. Upon arrival, firefighters cut the roof surrounding the chinney and used water from booster tanks to extingish traces of any fire.
Ashton said a home previously occupied by the family was hit by lightning during a freak electrical storm in the middle of January approximately six years ago.