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What's the best way to lightning proof a structure? I've seen some people attempt to place a 'ceiling' of glass at the top-most level of the map, but I don't know if this works or not (and it's a tad unattractive)... I'm a bit worried for my tree-house: enter image description here

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    Not quite a duplicate, but 'this question' is very related.
    – GnomeSlice
    Commented Apr 28, 2011 at 17:54
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    You are right to worry. Ooh, I'd avoid playing that world until you have an insurance policy of some sort.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Apr 28, 2011 at 17:54
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    @Grace Lightning comes from the very top of the map, so that doesn't work. Also it's a bit late now!
    – fredley
    Commented Apr 28, 2011 at 18:00
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    According to 'this question', lightning comes from above the ceiling of the map. So that wouldn't really help.
    – GnomeSlice
    Commented Apr 28, 2011 at 18:06
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    minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Command_Block#Game_Rules. IF commands are on, type /gamerule doFireTick true/false. This disables the spread of fire.
    – The Man
    Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 0:08

6 Answers 6

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  • Keep regular backups until Notch provides a form of protection against this or a way to disable thunderstorms.
  • If you see a thunderstorm get far enough away that the chunks containing your treehouse are unloaded.

EDIT: As of Minecraft 1.6, fire is severely nerfed and will not burn through your buildings like before. Consequently, lightning is also nerfed, and may not be worth worrying about, unless you structure is made of difficult to replace flammable materials, such as certain colours of cloth and leaves.

EDIT 2: Leaves are now replaceable due to the ability to cut them with shears in Minecraft 1.7. As a result, even treehouses no longer need to fear lightening.

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    I honestly don't understand why people insist in tree houses :)
    – badp
    Commented Apr 28, 2011 at 18:01
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    @fail because they're awesome!
    – fredley
    Commented Apr 28, 2011 at 18:05
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    @fail because treehouses are the best way to see your hard work go up in flames!
    – authenticgeek
    Commented Apr 28, 2011 at 18:34
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Just sleep through the thunderstorm. Use a bed when one appears.

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The latest Bukkit Recommended Build (#733) has rain putting out fires like it should. And since lightning only occurs during rain, you shouldn't have any issues.

If you are on an SMP server, suggest they update to the latest Bukkit as soon as possible if they have not already.

I'm still confused on if the Vanilla (Default Mojang) Minecraft server has this issue or not.

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    rain putting out fires like it should -- but in real life rain is rarely enough to put out a fire.
    – StackExchange saddens dancek
    Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 13:03
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    it's a good thing Minecraft <> real life then
    – EdGruberman
    Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 20:53
  • still, the "like it should" is wrong ;)
    – o0'.
    Commented Apr 30, 2011 at 20:47
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    In Minecraft SSP, rain puts out fire. Assuming SMP follows SSP, it should.
    – EdGruberman
    Commented May 1, 2011 at 20:58
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I know it isn't such a problem anymore, but if you want to get rid of visible weather effects, there are two solutions that involve commands.

  1. You could consider the /fill command with Barriers. If you don't already know what Barriers are, they are the equivalent of invisible bedrock, obtainable only with the /give command. The command format for using /fill reads as follows. (X means the X coord, Y means the Y coord, etc.)

    /fill (X) (Y) (Z) (X2) (Y2) (Z2) minecraft:barrier

    Do this above where the player(s) will walk, and problem solved!

  2. You could have a command block that is programmed with /Weather clear and have a button so every time it stormed, sunny skies would be back at the push of a button.

The only question is, are you in Multiplayer? No cheats? If so, this is out of my league.

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Do /gamerule dofirespread false
This stops blocks from burning

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I found a different solution to this pretty old question that some people might be interested in: Create a sprinkler system.

The idea is as follows: Put a source block of water at various places inside the walls/ceilings, locked up by blocks that can burn. When the wall or ceiling burns down, the blocks holding your water in place will be removed by the fire and the water will escape, dowsing the fire and preventing it from spreading any further. Side effect is that this also removes certain items such as torches, but those can easily be replaced.

It's pretty effective at saving most of your building from fire if something happens, be it lightning at the very end of a thunderstorm, lightning during snow or just a user error such as a fireplace being too close. It is not fast enough to prevent the spread of fire towards the ceiling though. Put your sprinklers high up to dowse it quickly there.

I haven't gone any further, but in theory you could also unleash the water using redstone when certain blocks disappear. This way you could make the system more sensitive and dowse the fire earlier. In practice this is a bit infeasible to implement because it needs a lot more space and planning.

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