SMYRNA – Lightning is believed to be cause of a fire which burned a remote hunting cabin to the ground in rural Smyrna Sunday.

According to Second Assistant Chief Paul Lawrence of the Smyrna Fire Department, emergency responders were alerted to the blaze shortly before 7 p.m., when Chenango County’s 911 Dispatch Center began receiving calls about a thick column of black smoke in the vicinity of Graham Road in Smyrna. A subsequent caller was able to pinpoint the fire, as a cabin on Skyview Lane in the Beaver Meadow Lake Subdivision.

The Smyrna Fire Department, along with crews from Sherburne and Plymouth and the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

According to Lawrence, the cabin was fully involved when the first crew arrived. They could hear ammunition going off inside the one-story structure, which he said was believed to be a seasonal hunting camp.