A traditional Garo house (Nok Achik) belonging to former Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma caught on fire on Sunday evening because of a lightning strike at Gambegre village in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district.
Heavy rains accompanied by hailstorms and lightning lashed the district on Sunday afternoon at around 3.30 damaging many houses.
No one was, however, injured in the incident as neither former Chief Minister Sangma no other family members were present staying in the house.
“There were no casualties in the fire and an assessment of damage is still being carried out. The cause of the fire is a lightning strike that hit the dormitory,” superintendent of police, (SP) of West Garo Hill district, MGR Kumar, said.
The fire service department officials say fires caused by lightning strikes are fairly uncommon.