{"id":214418,"date":"2026-01-03T06:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/214418\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T06:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:32:07","slug":"lightning-strike-sends-tree-crashing-onto-hillcrest-house-in-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/214418\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning strike sends tree crashing onto Hillcrest house in Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"
The homeowner, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Herald she watched the storm coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was hail and then the lighting and thunder clapped together and it was huge, it looked like fire. It\u2019s blown out the electrics downstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n
A tree fell on a North Shore house after being struck by lightning. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n
The woman believed the fallen tree was 55 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the tallest on top of the hill. My son was downstairs on his computer and he said his arm nearly got blown off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fire and Emergency NZ were in attendance but have since left. Treescape arborists are now cleaning up the debris. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n
A neighbour told the Herald that even though they were wearing headphones at the time, they heard \u201cthe loudest bang\u201d they had ever heard in their life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that something had been struck really close, but I didn\u2019t anticipate it to be the tree opposite our house,\u201d the neighbour said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe went outside to make sure my car was OK … and the tree had literally just missed my vehicle, but the house right next door was, unfortunately damaged, and all their vehicles as well were damaged.\u201d<\/p>\n
The neighbour described the storm as \u201csudden and violent\u201d and was shocked by the power of the lightning. <\/p>\n
\u201cthe lightning also was quite unexpected, at least, obviously, the location and the intensity of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Fire and Emergency NZ left the scene, Treescape arborists moved in. They are now clearing up debris on the street left behind by the tree, while neighbours watch on. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The homeowner, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Herald she watched the storm coming. \u201cThere was hail…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,51,3952,682,20496,15980,71,129691,10053,78,3242,9322,111,43,139,529,69,56820,35968,18484,673,4485,20705,24994,15981,20424],"class_list":["post-214418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-auckland","tag-aucklands","tag-being","tag-crashing","tag-fallen","tag-from","tag-hillcrest","tag-house","tag-in","tag-large","tag-lightning","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-onto","tag-sends","tag-shore","tag-storm","tag-strike","tag-struck","tag-sudden","tag-tree","tag-violent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}