By JACQUELINE DURETT
Correspondent
SOUTH AMBOY — A lightning strike from heavy thunderstorms damaged the city’s Board of Education (BOE) building on John Street during the evening of July 25.
At about 6 p.m., lightning hit the chimney of the building, a converted house, at 240 John St., causing bricks to scatter on both sides of the property, both in the parking lot of the BOE building and in the driveway of the house next door.
“It took down the whole chimney,” Fire Chief John Kelly said, adding that bricks did hit the hood of a car parked at the house next door, but there were no injuries reported. The BOE building is directly across from the city’s elementary school.
Following the incident, traffic was temporarily prohibited from turning from Broadway onto John Street. Fire and police vehicles remained stationed at the scene for at least an hour as rain continued to fall intermittently.
A BOE meeting scheduled for the same evening at the same time the lightning strike happened continued as planned at the South Amboy Middle High School that is located about a half mile away. However, the Google Hangout call that would have broadcast the meeting was cancelled due to technical issues from the lightning strike.
Kelly said there were no other incidents in the city related to the storm.
However, in neighboring Sayreville, the storm caused the traffic light at Washington and Ernston roads in Sayreville to fail. Police officers directed traffic. According to Assistant Fire Chief George Gawron, it was the only storm-related incident in the borough.
