Lightning causes fire at West Lafayette apartments

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Pine Manor apartments on Yeager Road in West Lafayette caught fire for the third time in a week and a half.

According to West Lafayette dispatch, the apartment building caught fire around 10:30 p.m. after it got struck by lightning. All residents were evacuated.

Around fifteen apartments were destroyed and six families were displaced.  Dispatch said some of the those apartments were vacant at the time of the fire because many of the residents are students who left town for the holiday weekend.

Firefighters were on the scene at Pine Manor until 3:30 a.m. battling the blaze. Flames were visible through the roof and spread within minutes as the roof started to collapse.  West Lafayette Police said everyone escaped unharmed.

The first two fires displaced about 50 people, most of them Purdue students.