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In another incident, Bluffton Township Fire District firefighters battled a blaze in Belfair Plantation on Manchester Court. That fire was likely started by a lightning strike and destroyed the home's attic, Lt. Robert Payne said. Investigators were on the scene Tuesday night to determine the cause of the blaze, but the home is likely a total loss, he said.
Bluffton firefighters received 11 weather-related reports concerning homes and businesses on Fording Island Road, Regent Avenue and Lakeland Drive, among others. No damage reports were available Tuesday afternoon.
The man who was struck by lightning was standing near a tree on Haddon Avenue in Bluffton, Payne said.
In all of the incidents, no major injuries were reported.
No damage estimates were available late Tuesday.
The Beaufort Fire Department was called to six possible structure fires after lightning struck a number of Beaufort homes and businesses during a violent thunderstorm Tuesday.
Of the six calls, only one was an actual fire, said Beaufort Fire Chief Sammy Negron.
Negron said firefighters were called to a home on Pigeon Point Road, and quickly extinguished a small fire caused by lightning.
Firefighters were also dispatched to homes and businesses on West Street, Charles Street, Phillip Street and Newcastle Street as well as the Pizza Inn on Boundary Street.
No damage was reported in any of those lightning strikes, Negron said.
That was not the case on Lady's Island, however.
There, two homes were struck by lightning, leaving one uninhabitable, officials said.
The first fire was reported just before 3 p.m. in the Telfair neighborhood after lightning hit a tree, destroying a home's electrical system and sparking a small fire on the exterior of a home, Lady's Island-St. Helena Fire District spokesman Lee Levesque said. The rain contained most of the damage, he said.
Moments later, another fire was reported in the Lucy Creek neighborhood that burned a hole in the roof and damaged the attic, he said.
That home was ruled uninhabitable, Levesque said.
Beaufort County EMS and Beaufort County Sheriff's deputies assisted, he said.
The National Weather Service in Charleston reported more than 1,000 lightning strikes and about an inch of rain in Beaufort and Jasper counties during the two-hour storm, Meteorologist John Quagliariello said.
The severe thunder storm was aided by warm air and an unstable atmosphere, he added.
About 170 people lost power in Beaufort County during the storm, according to Palmetto Electric engineers.
There is a 30 to 40 percent chance of another thunderstorm today, meteorologists said.
