A fire caused by a lightning strike damaged the ceiling of a building at Pegasus Pointe on Sunday afternoon, forcing five residents to relocate, according to an incident report released by Orange County Fire Rescue.

There were no injuries, and all residents were evacuated from the building, according to UCF News & Information.

At the time of the fire, there was a heavy storm with lightning in the area.

Orange County Fire Rescue responded to the call at 3:15 p.m. There had been calls about alarms going off in Buildings 2 and 3. Firefighters, EMTs and paramedics arrived on the scene.

On initial investigation, fire rescue found nothing in the two buildings.

When maintenance was called to reset the systems, a building security guard approached a firefighter and pointed to “brown turbulent smoke issuing from the ridge vent of Building 1,” according to the incident report.

Paramedic James Moody passed through the breezeways on all three floors of Building 1 in an attempt to further evacuate the building.

When he pulled the alarm on the first floor of the building, it didn’t sound.

The reason for the alarm’s failure has yet to be determined.

The incident report stated that Moody made his way to the third floor, where two firefighters had already begun to pull ceiling in the breezeway to get to the source of the fire. The fire was then knocked down and confined to the attic. It took three firefighters to contain and then put out the fire.

Part of the building was blocked off temporarily after the fire but is now accessible.
FLA-CAT, a full-service insurance restoration contractor, has been on the scene since.

Pegasus Pointe is a UCF-affiliated student housing complex located on Alafaya Trail.
According to Chad Binette, the associate director of UCF News & Information, UCF

Housing and Residence Life staff were able to assist the five students not able to return to their apartments.

According to the incident report, several of the apartments also suffered water damage.

This isn’t the first time a fire has occurred at Pegasus Pointe.

In November 2004, an unattended cigarette caused a fire at Building 11. The building had to be rebuilt.

Coincidentally the fire on Sunday happened the first day of Lightning Safety Awareness Week.

According to the National Weather Service, Florida is the lightning capital of North America, with an average of 1.4 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes per year. Security at Pegasus Pointe would not allow the Future to speak to residents about the incident.