Did lightning strike my apartment building?

Question

This morning when it was raining, I had a scary incident happen. I was laying in bed and I saw a really bright light and a loud boom (lightning). At first, I thought something exploded. Then I realized it was probably lightning, and it must of hit something in my room. When it happened, the smoke alarm sounded once, but not again. There was no fire. My boyfriend said it probably hit the building. But I don't know. Should I be more concerned? Did it probably just hit somewhere else in the apartment complex (and I'm guessing there was no fire because it's been three hours).

Answer 1

It might have at least hit near you. But if nothing has happened in 3 hours, then there's no reason to be concerned.

Chances are, that wasn't the smoke alarm either. Instead it may have been the apartment's circuit breaker being tripped (it makes a very loud single 'scream'). Which means that the power lines got a piece of the lightning, causing the line to overload for an instant.

As long as the power is still on though, then there couldn't have been very serious damage.

Answer 2

It may or may not have. Lightning releases a lot of energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation,"radio waves." This is what set of your smoke detector. The radio waves traveled down the sensor wires to the sensor and triggered it. But since it was a one time occurrence it didn't sound the alarm again.

Answer 3

Hmm had the same thing happen to me here in Cancun sounded like a huge bomb going off my smoke alrms also went off and lost power  othere then that no problem .

Am gessing you just got  the same blast i did.

I hate lighting.