Local and federal officials don’t know what may have caused a missile-like shaft of ice 6 feet long to tear through the metal roof of a Seminole Woods house in Palm Coast Monday afternoon on a warm, cloudless day. But they have ideas.
No one was hurt when the ice bombed the house moments before 3:39 p.m., when a neighbor reported it to Flagler County’s 911 dispatch center. The neighbor told the dispatcher that the ice went right through the roof, while there was ice “all over the roadway as well.” When firefighters arrived, chunks of ice that had fallen in the driveway had melted, leaving small circular patches of moisture.
Within eight minutes Flagler County FireFlight, the emergency helicopter, was doing a fly-over while the county’s building inspector was dispatched on the ground. The Palm Coast Fire Department’s Engine 29 responded and was able to get most of the ice out of the hole before it melted, which would have piled water damage on top of the roof damage.
“Some of it was still sticking out,” Palm Coast Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill said of the ice, when firefighters first arrived on scene. He estimated the shard that struck the roof was 6 feet long. The city’s paramedics also assisted in installing a tarp over the roof. Berryhill would not speculate about the cause. “That’s not really our role in the Fire Department, figuring out why,” he said. “We’re there to respond to things that are happening. That’s why we emphasize response time.”
But he said he’d never experienced that sort of incident in 20-some years, and said it would have been “catastrophic” had it struck an occupied car or a person.
Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord has experienced something similar over 20 years ago in South Florida, when it was determined that the ice was so-called “blue ice,” or the treated effluent from commercial planes. In this case, Lord said that based on the photographs the Palm Coast Fire Department took of the ice, it did not appear to be the biological kind.
Lord echoed the assessment of federal officials, saying water that sometimes leaks out of a commercial plane forms ice on its fuselage. As the plane descends into warmer air, the ice can melt and fall off. When the FAA gets such reports, as it does from time to time–there was a nearly identical incident in Patterson, N.J., seven months ago, when the homeowners were on their porch–the agency tries to determine whether the ice could have come from an aircraft and then identify aircraft potentially involved.
“The FAA is investigating,” a spokesperson at the agency’s Atlanta office said today.
“It’s not common in any way shape or form, but it’s also not unheard of,” Lord said. “It’s definitely horrible for the family who own that home. They have a repair to do now and I’m sure they’ll have to chat with their insurance company.”
In the Patterson incident, the homeowners were sitting on their porch when they heard what they described to a television reporter as the quick whirring of helicopter blades before the crashing down. They went inside and discovered that the ice had torn through the roof, the attic, and damaged a ceiling.
Pam Coast sits below a sky highway, with traffic in and out of Orlando arcing over the city, and traffic to and from south Florida and Latin America also crisscrossing the sky at most hours.
The building inspector cleared for occupancy the 2,500-square foot house on Seattle Trail, which was built in 2006. The house has been under the ownership of the same resident for 20 years. She is now 73. She was not home at the time of the incident, but made contact with authorities there before sundown. A check through Palm Coast permitting records indicates no roof work for at least 20 years. Metal roofs are durable, but cannot withstand the impact of a shard of ice hurling from the sky at rocket speed.
Flagler Expatriate says
Did Staly arrest the pilot for throwing a deadly missle? If not it may be time for ole Rick to retire!
Laurel says
A Six Feet Under episode! Good thing no one was hit.
Willy Boy says
I think one of the flight schools using the Flagler Executive Airport did this. Please, FBOC, shut that airport down! The planes are poisoning us with lead from their exhaust, making us lose our rest, and now this! Enough is enough.
Endless dark money says
Insurance will probably deny it, more profits for them. Maybe diversity came off the plane and hit the roof , right republicons? Prob can’t investigate while the tsa and taa are shut down right haha? Maybe we can get live feed of the millions of people facing starvation when they realize we are total savages for a dollar and leadership would rather watch them starve. Maybe Elon with his unprecedented access can shut down your Ss and Medicare payments!! haha You voted for it!! Rip merica
Cheryl says
*Paterson
James says
“Metal roofs are durable, but…”
Yup, low weight, good in high wind areas (tropical storm force), fire resistant and usually warrantied to approximately 30 to 50 years… they can also be installed over an existing shingle roof.
The individual panels have a “tongue and groove” edge construction which facilitates in their installation… in other words, they theoretically can be installed by a knowledgeable diy home owner.
They do require periodic maintenance… repainting every decade as necessary, where necessary. And they’re usually more expensive than the most heaviest weight laminated asphalt architectural shingle available… but cheaper than clay, slate… etc., which I’ve learned can be a nightmare to maintain.
Unfortunately when a hurricane hits an area, micro tornadoes can be formed within the bands… these wind anomalies can almost be considered “mini-singularities” with extreme pressure and speed variations. If one were to have the misfortune of being directly impacted by one, it wouldn’t matter what kind of roof you had… new, old… shingle or metal.
Just say’n.
Adios.
celia pugliese says
Same incidents in CA, Canada and Tokyo were a person was killed in 2016.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/watermelon-size-chunk-of-ice-from-jetblue-plane-crashes-through-roof-of-couple-s-home-lawsuit/ar-AA1xNi4C
Never cease to amaze me says
Seriously – you blame the flight school?
FlaPharmTech says
I’m blaming one of Elon’s ventures.
Lance Carroll says
No theory involved, or theoretically either. Check the Florida Building Code as per DIY…
Nancy N. says
There is no conceivable way that something this huge fell off a small flight training plane. It obviously had to have come off of one of the commercial airliners that are constantly flying over our heads. Stop letting your obsession with the airport cloud your common sense.
Skibum says
Endless must believe that our local airport is somehow responsible for every calamity that occurs around here. Hurricane damage? Must be the airport flight school… shut ’em down! Tornado? Just has to be caused by the flight school plane traffic… shut ’em down! LOL
diane says
So I’m not a pilot, nor do i work for FAA, nor do i know much of anything except that the commercial airliners do travel along the coastline in Florida or a little inland, they come from up North where there’s still icy conditions and when they de-ice a plane, it’s just enough to take off, then they are travelling 30,000 ft or more in cold icy atmosphere so any left over ice dripping down on the plane accumulating in areas like nooks and crannies would stay frozen up there until they hit the warm south and it might loosen and then detach from the hot metal airplane and atmosphere and look out below. My bet it was a commercial airliner that carried it from a cold climate area, heading by to Orlando.
tom says
I hope their insurance company pays for it and doesn’t call it an “act of God”. Because if it was God, he missed his mark.