Lightning Cause of Unusual House Fire, Fallen Tree Limb that Damaged Car

Updated: 6:20 p.m. on Sept. 1

A lightning strike downed a tree that landed on a vehicle, as well as an unusual house fire in Wayne on August 21, fire officials said.

No one was injured.

Radnor Township Fire Marshall Don Wood said that lightning struck a large tree at 506 W. Beechtree Lane and a tree limb fell on top of the neighbor’s Lexus that was parked in the driveway directly below the tree on that late Sunday afternoon.

The strong electrical current and voltage of the lightning caused a fire in the basement of the house, even though the lightning did not directly strike the house or its pipes, Wood said.  The tree it struck was 25 feet away from the home.

"This is the first time I've every actually seen fire go from a tree, without any obvious path, into the house itself," Wood said.

Wood said the fire started in the basement and went up through the floorboards into the kitchen, which sustained the most damage. The strong current from the lightning traveled through the ground and ignited a spark on pipes in the home's basement, which then jumped to a gas pipe and ignited.

Wood said there was extensive damage to the kitchen and a bathroom near the kitchen, as well as damage to the second floor and a second floor bathroom. The actual damage caused by the fire was minimal, but fire officials had to ensure that the fire had not spread through the walls, Wood said. 

"It took me a little while and a lot of research to decide what [the cause of the fire] was because it was unusual that lightning—without any apparent path—got into the house," Wood said.

"But I did some research and found that this happens more than I would have expected… but not to us here in Radnor. This is the first time in Radnor that I know of."

No one was home at the time of the fire. The residents were down the shore at the time, neighbors said.

The owner of the Lexus and neighboring house, who did not wish to give his name, said he was home watching the Phillies game when he heard a loud "explosion" and knew it was a lightning strike.

He said he heard the explosion and the tree limb fall almost immediately following. He called the police to file a report, since the tree limb appeared to have extensively damaged his vehicle. The side mirrors were torn off, windows broken and the roof was crushed.

The police arrived and took a report, the man said, and were in the process of leaving the scene. The man said he was beginning to clean up the mess around his car when he smelled smoked and saw smoke coming from his neighbor's house.

Michael Maguire said his father, Sgt. Maguire with the Radnor Police Department, had responded to the downed tree call and was about to leave the scene when he too smelled smoke and then saw smoke coming from the house.

Sgt. Maguire along with Officers Bieree and Cocco called in the fire call at about 3:54 p.m., McGuire said. The fire was under control in about an hour.

The owner of the Lexus said he knows things could have been a lot worse. He said he was glad no one was hurt and his neighbor’s weren’t home at the time of the fire and that it was only his car that was damaged by the tree.

"It could have been a lot worse," he said. "It’s just a car."

Radnor Township Fire Company, Ambulance and Police Department responded to the scene along with Berwyn, Gladwyne and Paoli Fire Departments and Narberth Ambulance Corps.