ST CHARLES, Mo. — The noisy, overnight thunderstorms left the St. Louis area, but they did leave behind some wet conditions and damage.
Overnight, 5 On Your Side spoke to St. Charles City Battalion Chief Aaron Burlingame who confirmed there is fire damage to the clocktower at the Three Flags Center in St. Charles. The center near South Main Street and the Ameristar Casino is full of businesses and shops.
Officials say nobody was hurt and the fire did not travel to the businesses below.
Firefighters battled the rain to get the small fire inside the clock tower under control. Fire crews and ambulances were on the scene.
St. Charles City Battalion Chief Aaron Burlingame could not confirm lightning was the cause but firefighters were initially called to the first alarm fire for a lightning strike.
The damage is considered moderate with the fire only taking place inside the tower. Fire officials say there will be an investigation to determine the final cause of the fire but they did not immediately offer a timeline as to when they would conclude.
Overnight tornado warnings happened in Jefferson and Washington counties. Plus heavy rain and thunderstorms throughout St. Louis and St. Louis County.
As of 9 a.m., nearly 1300 customers were without power in Missouri according to this outage map. Just over 1600 outages were reported in Illinois according to the utility company.
Ameren Missouri officials say their crews were sent out minutes before 7 a.m. to a neighborhood near the St. Charles Soccer Complex to work on a power outage impacting 110 customers. Ameren is reporting that the outage is because of damage to power lines from trees.