On March 11, 2018, lightning struck a church in Nyaruguru, Rwanda. Sixteen people died. It is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that something similar has happened. When lightning strikes a building, a fire can occur, as wood and other flammable materials ignite. As you might expect, this usually starts on the roof or in the attic.
However, sometimes when the discharge does not fall directly on the house, but in a nearby place, it spreads to it through the electrical wiring. This happened with the fire that destroyed the A Virxe da Barca sanctuary, in the Coruña municipality of Muxía, after lightning struck a transformer near the temple.
In addition, electrical storms are also capable of damaging the structure of a home if a shock wave occurs. Thunder, when it occurs at close range, can be very destructive, fracturing mortar, cement and stone. In fact, chimneys made of this material are often very affected.
