A lightning strike is being blamed for a fire that devastated a house at 12512 Meadow Farm Road in Potomac on Thursday night.
In a video from the scene at about 1 a.m. on Friday, Pete Piringer, a spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, said smoke alarms alerted the residents and they got out OK.
No one was injured and one family was displaced.
The house was heavily damaged. Piringer wrote in a post on Twitter on Friday morning that damage was estimated at more than $500,000 — including $400,000 to the structure and $100,000 to the contents. There were multiple vehicles in the garage.
The fire was found to have started at about 11 p.m. in the roof of the garage, Piringer wrote on Twitter, consistent with the idea that it was struck by lightning.
Meadow Farm Road is off Stoney Creek Road.
Piringer said in the video that around 85 firefighters were at the scene and knocked the fire down pretty quickly.
