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During yesterday morning’s thunderstorm, lightning struck a home in the Benbow area of Southern Humboldt.

Dan Miller, a kundalini yoga teacher who teaches meditation, said he was lying awake watching and listening to the thunder and lightning about 4 a.m. “It was fascinating,” he told us. “So wild….Then I thought I heard some varmints banging stuff around.”

He was worried that it might be a skunk. But he got up and went outside. “I had no idea my house was on fire…I came around the corner and I smelled smoke,” he said. “The trees were lit up.”

Then he realized what was happening. “Flames were going up the side of the house,” he explained. “This brand new seat was on fire.”

He told us he didn’t have time to think. Luckily a garden hose was right there. “The primal brain kicks in,” he said. He grabbed the hose and managed to put out the fire.


Taken right after the fire was put out, this photo shows the window before a roll of thunder broke it further.

After that he had time to look around and he realized that his home had been struck by lightning or to be more precise, a water feature right next to his home had been struck.

“I had a fountain that was right out my back window that had lights in it,” he explained. “That’s just gone. The fountain is just some wires where the lights were.” The strike had also broken the large back window and fire had damaged the outside of his home. “Luckily, I had cement composite siding so it didn’t spread fast,” he told us.

But Miller said Mother Nature wasn’t through with him yet. As he was cleaning up, another roll of thunder shook his home and a huge piece of glass from his double-paned window which had been damaged in the strike came crashing down. “A big three foot piece came slamming down and broke,” he explained still awestruck.

The large chunk of glass now gone from the window shows in the morning light as does the smoke and charring up the side of Miller’s home.

At first he said, he was shook up. But, after he posted on Facebook, “Then the coolest thing happened… .” Neighbors came over to make sure he was alright and assist in the cleanup. “The feeling of having the community come together to help out was wonderful…We have this amazing group of people who come through.”

He noted, “Where else can the rescuers come over and pray with you.”


Miller’s shattered window from the inside surrounded by his meditation and art pieces.

And he added sanguinely, “I have insurance. It will cover it.”

Then he waxed a bit philosophical. “I see us in this amazing time of growth and change,” he explained. “Sometimes it seems like something just has to give…I’m so glad it was something physical not a body part.”

Miller has been doing Facebook live meditations at 11 a.m. everyday. The backdrop he has used has been the large window that has now been damaged by the lightning.

From the outside looking into Miller’s house through the broken window.
“I’m doing this Shiva meditations, the goddess of destruction,” he explained. “Something has to give in order for something new to emerge.”

And for him, at least temporarily it did. The window backdrop, he said, is now “a really cool art piece…I’m joyful.”