Lightning strike believed to be cause of Auckland house fire

A lightning strike is believed to be the cause of a house fire in Penrose.

Four fire trucks attended the incident at Rockfield Rd around 3.45pm.

The fire was in a second-floor bedroom and the roof space, which fire fighters used an aerial appliance to monitor.

“It is believed the fire was started by a lightning strike,” senior station officer Ivan Millan said.

“The crew did an excellent job. They cut the fire off at the first instance and then, as the fire developed in the roof space due to the potential lightning strike, we did a really good job of cutting it off there as well.”

The occupants were out of the house before firefighters arrived.

Nearby resident Hannah (who didn’t want her surname used) was in her kitchen when the thunderstorm hit.

“I was in the kitchen, which is in the corner of my house, then the room went purple,” she said.

”I’m not a scaredy cat to loud noises but I wanted to cry from how loud it was.

“I thought it was my literal next-door neighbour and not way further down the street.”

A house fire in Penrose, Auckland is believed to have started when lightning hit the roof. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Hannah said she saw about 50 people gathered on Rockfield Rd looking at the house, which had “thick, light-grey smoke, everywhere” coming from the roof.

She said the lightning strike left a big silver spot of the roof.

A lightning strike is believed to have caused a house fire in Penrose, Auckland. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Specialist fire investigators will now attempt to confirm the cause of the fire.

The fire was the only weather-related event Fire and Emergency New Zealand attended in Auckland.

Oranga local Jesse Everitt said he was driving when the sky went dark as the thunderstorm rolled in.

“It was all sunny then you see these dark clouds come over,” he said.

“Then seven minutes into that storm you hear a loud bang and the sky went all bright.”

Everitt said when he got home, he noticed smoke and he saw people at the scene “worried and scared”.

“There’s no ambulance out so we’re thankful for that.”

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