Joe Colby was jolted awake in the middle of the night by a nearby lightning strike and the crack of thunder. It sounded so close that he got out of bed and trudged across Route 4 in the dark to check on his sawmill.

Nothing seemed amiss, so he went back to bed.

Hours later, his brother woke him up with disastrous news: The sawmill was engulfed by flames.

Early Monday morning, the 60-by-130-foot building holding the sawmill at Colby Lumber in Boscawen burnt to the ground. Nobody was on site when the fire started, and no one was injured. The mill was the lone casualty of the 13 buildings on the property.

The official cause of the fire is unknown, but both Colby and Fire Chief Tim Kenney believe that lightning ignited the blaze.

At 3:54 a.m., the Boscawen Fire Department received a call from a passerby about a possible “outdoor fire.” As Kenney headed towards the site, he could tell from a mile away that it was the mill.

“The sky was lit up,” he said. When he got there, the fire was already raging.

He called for more trucks, and crews used a nearby brook as a water source to douse the building in water. Firefighters spent six hours on the scene putting out all hot spots. Kenney plans to return to the site throughout the day to make sure nothing reignites – smoke was still pouring from the remains late Monday morning. Sawdust is particularly hard to fully extinguish, he said.

Colby Lumber was founded in 1950 by James Colby, who died in 2014 and left the business to his two sons, Joe and James Colby. The company, with 12 employees, had been operating at the mill for the last 50 years. 

The brothers were planning to retire on Thursday. Now, they’re not sure.

“I have to regroup, and think about it,” Joe Colby said. “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet.”

When Joe Colby laid eyes on the mill for the second time that night, it was a little after 5 a.m. Flames were everywhere.

“There wasn’t much we could do,” Joe Colby said.

For Kenney and his crew, there was reason to be thankful.

“We’re happy that no one was inside,” he said. “But obviously, it’s a big loss.”

By late morning, the burnt, dusty ash still hung in the air. Joe Colby stood alone in the driveway pondering what was left of the mill. He stared up at the power lines, where a pair of workers fiddled with the wires. 

“It’s pretty surreal,” Colby said.  “I’m sure I’m going to be devastated, but I’ve dealt with losses before and I’ve got good support.”

Sofie Buckminster can be reached at sbuckminster@cmonitor.com.