Lightening struck two townhomes in Pitt Meadows Thursday afternoon during a spring storm.
Around 4:30 p.m, the bolt zapped a chimney of one house on Barnston View Road in Osprey Village and started a small fire, which set off sprinklers.
The blast blew off roof tiles, sending debris flying into grass 50 feet away.
Andrew Sylvester, 15, was walking home from school when he was startled by a flash of bright light.
"Then I heard this loud bang."
A family of four was home when the lightening hit but got out safely. No one was home in the other townhouse, except for a cat.
"Fortunately no one was injured," said Pitt Meadows fire chief Don Jolley, who added the strike also blew the ceiling off in one unit.
"A potentially bad incident turned out quite well."
It's the first time Jolley's seen lightening strike a house.
"We usually see it hit trees or hydro poles, so this is pretty unusual."
Ominous dark clouds brought pelting rain, hail and thundershowers to Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows as a spring storm drifted from the coast into the Fraser Valley.