Lightning strike chars storage facility

A severe thunderstorm Saturday evening has left one Brandon family without the bulk of their household possessions and two other families without their camper and their boat.

Brandon Fire Chief Robert Dykstra said the call came in at 11:02 p.m. Saturday, summoning firefighters west of the city to Brandon Westside Storage at 1800 W. Frontier St. Dykstra said a lightning strike is the likely cause of the blaze.

“Everything’s leading to that,” he said.

Brandon Westside Storage is owned by Jeff Tibke, who was out of town Saturday evening.

The two units on the west end of the storage facility and the contents were completely destroyed in the blaze. A camper parked outside next to the building was also a total loss. Value of the items is unknown at this time, and Dykstra said he will be meeting with property owners this week for his follow-up report.

At the same time Brandon was being dispatched to the fire at the storage facility, they were assisting the Splitrock Fire Department with a car accident.

“It was a unique incident,” Dykstra said. 

Along with Brandon, the initial dispatch went out to Valley Springs and Splitrock departments, but Dykstra said knowing that Splitrock was already in service, he put in a call for mutual aid to the Sioux Falls Fire Department.

Once on scene and established, Dykstra said the fire was largely extinguished in 15 to 20 minutes.

Upon the department’s arrival, rain continued to fall and winds were strong, Dykstra said, which was cause for concern because embers were blowing southeast toward another storage structure.

Dykstra said fires in storage units present a unique challenge.

“Initially, you don’t know what’s inside them, you don’t know what people are storing,” he said.

Firefighters remained on scene until about 3 a.m., Dykstra said.

“We wanted to make sure everything was out and there were not hot spots,” he said.

In addition to Valley Springs and Sioux Falls fire departments, Brandon Police, MED-Star and Minnehaha County Emergency Management were on scene.

Dykstra said no one was injured in the fire.

Sam and Lauren Hinton lost most of their personal household belongings in the fire, including furniture, bikes, tools, children’s belongings, clothing, tools and other items that cannot be replaced.

“We pretty much couldn’t have put worse things in there,” Lauren said.

The family has been living with Lauren’s parents as they save up money to purchase their own home.

The Hinton’s property in the storage unit was not insured, Lauren confirmed.

“When we signed our lease, there was a thing about insurance in case of theft,” she explained. “We joked, because all of our stuff is sentimental and who was going to want to steal that?”

A Go Fund Me account – with a goal of $5,000 – has been set up for the Hinton family. As of midday Monday, 21 donors had pledged $3,130. In addition, many community members have offered to donate clothing, furniture, etc.

“At least it wasn’t a month before we were moving in,” said Lauren, adding the family hopes to purchase a home next year. “The worst is (the loss of) all of the kids’ stuff.”

The Hinton’s are humbled by the outpour of community help.

“We appreciate everyone’s kind words and sympathy … we just want to be done with it because there’s nothing we can do with it,” she said.