Lightning strike blamed for Chesterfield house fire

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — A lightning strike sparked a fire at a home in a Chesterfield neighborhood as severe storms moved through Central Virginia on Saturday afternoon.

Chesterfield Fire and EMS crews were called to a house fire in the 5700 block of Country Manor Court around 4 p.m. That is in the Meadowbrook Farm neighborhood off Iron Bridge Road.

WTVR

When firefighters arrived, they found smoke and flames coming from the home's attic.

Officials said the Meadowbrook Farm blaze was one of three fires in Chesterfield sparked by lightning from storms Saturday afternoon.

Lightning has also been blamed for a fire that destroyed a historic Richmond church earlier this month.

WATCH: Doorbell cam video shows lightning strike before former historic Richmond church goes up in flames

Investigators confirmed on Thursday that the fire that destroyed the former Good Shepherd Baptist Church in Church Hill was caused by a lightning strike.

A neighbor's doorbell camera captured a bolt of lightning and an ear-splitting crack of thunder just before 5:55 p.m. on Sunday, July 5 — and about 15 minutes later, that same camera showed visible fire at the former church.

CBS 6 obtained the video from the neighbor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. She said she turned the footage over to fire investigators that same day.

As of 9:15 p.m. Saturday, the storms had knocked out power to more than 17,800 Dominion Energy customers, including more than 8,200 in Chesterfield. There were more than 7,700 without power in Henrico, 1,130 in Hanover and more than 500 in Richmond, according to the power company's online outage summary tracker.

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This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.