Lightning lit up the sky across much of Nova Scotia Saturday evening as a severe summer storm made its way across the province. The storm was quite an unusual spectacle for most, but also left behind widespread power outages and for some, destruction.
Shortly after 7 p.m., police and firefighters were called to 4 Bayview Lane in Queensland, N.S. after neighbours called 911 to report a home being struck by lightning.
“There was a huge strike, just right where the house was,” Jim Fryday, who lives across the street, said.
“It was that close that the inside of our house just lit up like a blue-white light and immediately… not even a second later. It was just like a huge bomb went off. It was so loud our house shook – really shook hard,” Fryday said.
WATCH: Video of a home in Queensland, N.S., that was destroyed after being struck by lightning
“We got numerous calls about a house fully on fire, believed to be, from the callers anyways, hit by lightning,” Cpl. Jadie Spence said.
By the time officials arrived on scene, the home was engulfed in flames and there was nothing they could do to save it.
The homeowner told Global News early Sunday morning that the home was “completely gone.”
The man who rents the residence says he and his family were not home at the time of the fire. Although no one was injured as a result of the blaze, the man says he lost two dogs in the fire.
Widespread power outages
People in different parts of Nova Scotia were affected by storm. At one point, there were more than 30,000 people in the Halifax Regional Municipality without power as a result of the lightning.
“Our equipment in Metro Halifax was deemed the worst damaged,” Maeghan Murphy, communications advisor with Nova Scotia Power, said.
“Our lakeside substation was struck by lightning and it damaged a key transformer, which was the root of the cause of many of the outages in Halifax.”
Murphy says all customers in the Halifax area had their power restored before noon on Sunday.
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