By SANDY McGEE

BURRILLVILLE — Glen Gaucher had a birthday he will never forget.
Shortly after his wife left for work, the 55-year-old Harrisville resident sat down with a cup of coffee Thursday morning to begin his “day off.”

“I was watching Sportsdesk and making out some bills, when I heard a big crack and a plate fell off the shelf we have in the kitchen,” he said. “I smelled wires burning. I opened the cellar door and it was filled with smoke. I knew that lighting hit something.”
Gaucher grabbed a cell phone and fled his house at 399 West Ironstone Road, Harrisville. Once inside his truck, he dialed 911.
“It was pouring out,” Gaucher said. “I knew it was lightning because I had heard a loud crack. It shook the whole house.”
A clock, plugged into a socket near the kitchen stove, was recovered later that day. The timepiece had stopped at exactly 7:40 a.m.
Gaucher believes the lightning struck a large pine tree in his backyard. From there, the jolt of electricity traveled along underground metal wires to his shed and continued its path to a metal conduit pole attached to the house, he said.
The strike caused a window at the rear of the wood-shingled house to shatter. A fusebox in the basement had blown off the basement wall.
Copper wiring, connected to light sockets on the basement’s ceiling, exploded peircing a nearby hot water tank.
“If someone was down there, they would have been dead,” Gaucher said. “Thank God no one was hurt. I’m glad my wife wasn’t home.”
Gaucher’s insurance company is providing him and his wife with a three night stay at the Comfort Inn in North Smithfield, while electricity is restored to the house.
“I cannot believe it happened,” Gaucher said. “I have forgotten about my birthday already because of what happened. It’s unbelievable.”
Several properties in the Harrisville area lost telephone service. The Harrisville Fire Department, which responded to the lighting strike, along with Pascoag firefighters, lost service to its business phone.
Jolts of electricity were not only felt in Harrisville. Residents in several other communities awoke Thursday to lightning striking a little too close to home.
In North Smithfield, a few young campers arrived at the North Smithfield Elementary School just as lightning struck down in the school’s parking lot around 9 a.m. No one was injured.
“It caused some problems with the electrical unit that feeds the water system,” said North Smithfield Fire Chief Joel D. Jillson. “There was no real hazard for the building or its occupants. Not all of the campers were at the building yet.”
In Blackstone, Rathbun Street was temporarily closed due to some minor street flooding.
About three inches of rain fell Thursday morning in the town of Bellingham, according to Department of Public Works (DPW) employees. However, a water use restriction for lawn sprinklers was still in effect as of Thursday.
In Cumberland, not one, but two residential properties were hit by lightning. No injuries were reported.
The first lightning bolt touched down at 131 Abbot Run Valley Road around 8 a.m., “just as the skies opened up,” said Cumberland Hill Fire Chief Kenneth Finlay.
“The lightening hit the chimney, which just exploded,” he said. “There was some building damage, but no fire.
About 15 minutes later, a second lightning strike was reported at 16 Southbury Road. A jolt of electricity had landed in the driveway.
“It energized the entire house,” Finlay said. “A portion of the driveway exploded up when the lightening made contact. Patches of the grass lawn were burnt.
“It tripped numerous circuits in the building. We terminated power to the building and had the owner contact an electrician.”
Only one adult was home at the time.
“We also had a shorted circuit on Thompson Hill Road,” said the fire chief. “We’re not sure if it was due to the flood of rain or lightning.”
Street flooding also occurred early Thursday morning throughout town. The National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning for eastern Providence County.
“We had some water problems,” Finlay said. “On Nate Whipple Highway, you couldn’t see the highway. The rain was over the curbs on both sides.
“There was heavy water running down Hillside Road, almost to waterfall proportions. Traveling was also difficult on the state highways.”
Scattered thunderstorms and showers are expected to continue on Friday afternoon, Friday night and on the Fourth of July holiday.