A lightning strike Tuesday afternoon is being blamed for a small fire at the Phoenix Boats manufacturing facility in Winchester, Tenn.
Nobody was injured and no equipment or boats were impacted by the fire, according to company president Gary Clouse, who said a thunderstorm moved through the area about the same time the fire was detected.
Clouse said the fire was isolated to a small spot in the gel coat area of the 100,000-square-foot building. He said Teresa Johnson, the company’s chief operating officer, was the last employee in the building Tuesday and was alerted by a fire alarm. When she went outside, she noticed some smoke coming from the building.
Workers were cleaning up some water today that had been dispersed by the sprinkler system, Clouse said.
“We’re back building boats right now,” Clouse told BassFan via phone. “In the grand scheme of things, this was a minute thing and we’re feeling very fortunate. We lost a little bit of production, but nothing we can’t make up on a Saturday.”
