Lightning sparks house fire as rare thunderstorm slams Comox Valley

A rare and powerful thunderstorm swept across the Comox Valley on Friday, unleashing torrential rain, intense lightning and flash flooding that overwhelmed roads and businesses while firefighters raced from one emergency call to the next.

Within minutes, the storm transformed quiet neighbourhoods into scenes of chaos. Lightning cracked overhead, thunder rattled homes and sheets of rain flooded streets, forcing emergency crews to respond to multiple incidents across Courtenay and Comox.

Among the most dramatic calls was a lightning strike that ignited the roof of a Courtenay home.

“We were just in the house and all of a sudden there was an extremely loud explosion,” homeowner Angie Prescott said.

“The whole house lit up. Everything kind of exploded and the house shook.”

Prescott said her son, Cooper, had been sitting on his bed when he watched the lightning strike the roof just outside his bedroom window.

“He said he saw the lightning hit the roof just outside his bedroom window.”

The family initially had no idea the house was burning.

“I was actually on the phone with 911 because I was more worried about Cooper because he felt the current through his body,” Prescott said.

“Then she said, ‘Your house is actually on fire. You need to get out,’ because a neighbour had seen the flames.”

Everyone escaped safely.

Cooper Prescott said he is still trying to process what happened.

“I had both feet on the floor, then there was just a huge flash of light and a big bang,” he said.

“I felt a really big shock in my leg. It was just startling.”

He said he believes he is uninjured but isn’t certain whether the electrical shock came directly from the lightning strike or another source inside the home.

Courtenay Fire Department Chief Kurt MacDonald said the storm generated an unusually high number of emergency calls in a short period.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had this many calls at the same time in our area, and definitely a long time since we’ve had an electrical storm go through the valley like the one we’ve just experienced,” he said.

At one point, firefighters were responding to six active incidents simultaneously, prompting mutual aid from Comox Fire Rescue and Cumberland Fire Department.

While the lightning strike caused relatively minor fire damage to the home, MacDonald said the electrical system may have suffered significant damage.

“They’re going to have to have a full inspection by an electrician,” he said, adding BC Hydro disconnected power to the duplex while emergency support services assisted the displaced residents.

Elsewhere across the valley, heavy rainfall quickly overwhelmed drainage systems.

At the Comox Valley Transition Society’s Too Good To Be Threw thrift store, staff arrived Friday morning to find water bubbling up through floor drains.

Executive director Heather Nay said the first call she received left staff scrambling.

“I got a panic call from the thrift store saying they had water coming up through the floor,” she said.

Video from inside the building showed water pushing up through drains before spreading across the floor.

Fortunately, staff were able to contain the flooding with mops and reopened later in the morning after the floors had dried.

Nay said the building’s contractor described the weather as something rarely seen in the region.

“He said this was a one-in-100-year event in the Comox Valley,” she said.

A short distance away, Linda’s Leather and Shoe Service was dealing with a more familiar and frustrating cleanup.

Owner Linda Grundy said she discovered significant flooding when she opened the utility room.

“You couldn’t even step down because it was floating,” she said.

Water flooded the shop, sending boots, merchandise and even garbage bins drifting across the floor.

Grundy said it’s the second time the business has faced major flood damage after a similar event in 2021.

“It took seven months last time to get the place where we could move back in,” she said.

“I’m hoping it’s not that.”

Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm watch Friday morning for parts of northern Vancouver Island, warning slow-moving storms could produce heavy rainfall capable of causing flash flooding and dangerous driving conditions.

Although Friday’s downpour temporarily soaked the region, the storm has since moved away from the Comox Valley, but forecasters say there remains a chance of additional showers and isolated thunderstorms before conditions improve over the weekend.