Can lightning set stuff on fire?

Question

Notch has just implemented lightning. I'm now too terrified to open up my treehouse map in case a storm burns it to the ground! Is this possible?

Update

I've unanswered this question, now that fire behaves differently in 1.6.

And now I regret turning my buddys area into an ALL wood area. Ohh well. Atleast it was griefed by natural causes. — , Feb 08 '12 at 04:58

score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 23 '12 at 16:28

28

I just watched a huge treehouse burn to the ground because of a lightning strike. Rain DOES NOT ALWAYS put out fires. Now all my wool pixel art is in danger as well. Had to revert to a backup.

Caught the last few seconds of the destruction. Mind you, this used to be a huge treehouse that spanned at least 64x64 and up to the ceiling.

burning treehouse

edited Jan 23 '12 at 16:28

a cat

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answered Apr 21 '11 at 19:27

elliya

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Well that sucks. – Keaanu Apr 21 '11 at 20:13
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Ouch that sucks. The fire probably started somewhere where it was sheltered from the rain and grew until the rain couldn't put the fire out. – Kevin Yap Apr 22 '11 at 04:46
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Argh! I need lightning rods and I need them now! My treehouse is quite a lot larger than that one (was)... – fredley Apr 22 '11 at 10:27
I just returned from 15 minutes of mining and saw my whole wooden building on fire. That sucked. The rain put the fire out after a few minutes when not much was left of the building. – Exa Apr 26 '11 at 23:21

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:09

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In the preview of 1.5 that Notch showed, you can see lightning strike the ground and cause a fire.

However, as per elliya's answer, the rain doesn't always extinguish the fire.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:09

Community

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answered Apr 19 '11 at 14:18

Kevin Yap

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Blast. Beat me by 8 minutes. – Raven Dreamer Apr 19 '11 at 14:27
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Is there ever lightning under dry conditions? – Sadly Not Apr 19 '11 at 14:45
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Also, for those of you who embed YouTube videos, be sure to use the time anchor if you need a YouTube video to forward to a particular moment. YouTubeTime does this for you, in case you don't know how to do it by hand. – Sadly Not Apr 19 '11 at 16:00
Ahh, forgot about time anchors; thanks for reminding me. – Kevin Yap Apr 19 '11 at 16:11
@Kevin Y - No worries, I added one in for you anyways :) – Sadly Not Apr 19 '11 at 16:57
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Oh wow, I didn't realize that and added a time anchor on top of your time anchor, facepalm. Thanks for adding it. :) – Kevin Yap Apr 19 '11 at 17:01
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@Sadly Not According to the MC Wiki page on rain, thunderstorms are a part of the rain weather condition and not their own kind of weather, so I would assume they can only exist when it is raining. – Kevin Yap Apr 20 '11 at 00:51
I just saw a lightning strike take out a huge wood structure on SMP. – Zoredache Apr 22 '11 at 04:38
Hmm, that sucks. However, my answer did correctly answer what the question, just that I assumed the rain would put out the fire from what was written on the Minecraft Wiki. (Kind of disappointed at the downvote...) – Kevin Yap Apr 22 '11 at 04:55
Sounds like my lighthouse on an SMP server is in severe danger. The observation deck is made of wool. – GnomeSlice Apr 22 '11 at 17:55

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 08 '24 at 11:09

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yes, lightning will set things on fire here is a image of it: lightning here!

note that i am using the /summon command you can use the link below:

lightning

edited Jan 08 '24 at 11:09

Community

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answered Sep 16 '14 at 23:49

minextreme

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 06 '11 at 00:57

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The simple answer to your question is yes, it does. It's a bit like a flint and steel -- it will light a fire anywhere but only spread on wood and wool.

edited Oct 06 '11 at 00:57

Mana

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answered Oct 05 '11 at 19:12

ben

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Can lightning set stuff on fire?

Update

4 Answers4

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