AUBURN — Gammon Landscape Nursery Inc. is open for business — and never closed — after a lightning strike burned down its retail barn over the weekend.

The remnants were cleared off the property, about a mile from the Turner border on Route 4, Thursday. Owner Rick Gammon has plans to rebuild this fall.

Gammon owns two farms, each with barns, side by side. The family lives in one and runs the business out of the other. Gammon said he happened to be awake in the early morning hours Saturday when, “I saw the storm coming at a distance. All of a sudden there was the loudest thunder and lightning right at the same time.”

Later, his wife smelled smoke. By the time he was dressed and out the door, the nursery barn was aflame. It held burlap, fertilizer, tractors and tools.

The heat was so intense “we had all we could do to move to a truck that had been parked 60, 70 feet away,” Gammon said. “We were lucky (the barn) was detached.”

Lightning chased an electric line from the barn to the nursery house, taking out a pump and computers. Heat broke windows and melted siding, but fire officials were able to save that building.

“It was so close,” Gammon said. “No one was hurt and thank God it wasn’t our house.”

Firefighters stayed on the scene for hours and returned later in the morning when the barn flared back up. He said he was grateful for their quick response.

Everything in the barn was lost. A third building, with other tractors, chain saws and service equipment, was untouched.

“We were open the next day,” Gammon said. “It didn’t actually kill anything that was for retail sale,” just scorched foliage. He’s running a 50 percent off fire-damaged plants sale.

The barn was insured. “We’ve got a plan for a conservatory, greenhouse and storage building,” he said.

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