Earl Spencer's House Afire

05/31/1999 at 12:00 AM EDT

Lightning struck the luxury South African home of Britain's Earl Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, on Monday, setting fire to the house and causing serious damage but injuring nobody, local radio said. Cape Talk radio quoted Charles Spencer's spokeswoman as saying the Earl and his four children had been in the thatched house in Cape Town's luxury Constantia suburb at the time of the lightning strike, but had escaped unharmed.