A bolt of lightning struck the Fountain Hills Church of the Ascension steeple when a storm rumbled through town on Friday, Aug. 12, around 4 p.m.

While the strike did not cause a fire, it did cause damage to several electrical devices throughout the church.

According to Ascension’s Administrative Assistant, Jennie Mintzer, the strike fried the network card of an industrial printer/scanner, disabling its ability to print. The church’s landline was also disabled, along with the ethernet and several Wi-Fi extenders.

“We’re still working on getting everything back up,” Mintzer said, who was last week working her way down a list of affected devices around the church. “As of right now, we don’t know that there’s any ongoing electrical issues.”

Rev. Jilson Panakkal was the only individual in the church at the time of the strike, saying that he heard the lightning strike and smelled a burning odor.

The strike exposed the concrete steeple’s rebar, leaving debris on the roof of the church. Chunks of the steeple are strewn around the area where the lightning struck. An inspector is scheduled to visit the church to assess the damage in the coming days.