Flames soar during the roof of Bedford Home Furnishings after a lightning strike Thursday afternoon. A lightning-sparked blaze late Thursday afternoon left Bedford Home Furnishings of Shelbyville in misty ruins. Amazingly, for a few minutes as his South Cannon Boulevard business burn, owner Randy Hobson was ignorant of the commotion outside. “Someone called and said the building was on fire,” Hobson said. “I looked out the back door, saw flames everywhere and called 9-1-1.” Firefighters were finally forced to abandon use of Shelbyville’s snorkel after water force became too low to protect them from the fire’s heat. “A lightning strike went through the roof on the southeast corner of the building,” Fire Chief John Habel said. “The fire spread into the warehouse and into a gap between the ceiling and the roof. “The building was pretty much gone by the time we got there,” Habel said. Water, in abundant supply early on, began diminishing after a few minutes. “We had water at the start but the pressure fell,” Habel said. “We could only get 2,000 gallons per minute. We needed at least 3,000.” With the building previously a total loss, low water pressure forced firefighters to pull the city’s snorkel van away at the fire’s peak. “There was too much heat,” Habel said. “We couldn’t get enough water to keep the heat off.”