Nobody was injured, but the Tanger Outlets in Commerce lost "a good bit of landscaping" when lightning struck a transformer Tuesday night.
It happened around 6:30 p.m. and knocked out power to the shopping center, which forced it to close early, according to Mark Valentine, Tanger Outlets general manager.
The fire was sparked on a nearby bed of pinestraw, which created a lot of smoke, said Valentine in an email to AccessWDUN.
No stores were damaged.
"(I)t looked much worse than it really was. But the local Maysville Fire Department arrived quickly and put out the brush fire on short order," said Valentine.
An adjacent retaining wall was also stained by the smoke from the fire.
Jackson EMC had power restored by midnight Tuesday night, and the outlet stores opened at their regular hours Wednesday morning, Valentine said.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/3/515892/nobody-hurt-when-lightning-sparks-brush-fire-at-tanger-outlets