Lightning Strikes Singapore’s Merlion. Engineers Add Lightning Protection.

The weather contributed electricity.

Singapore’s Merlion has a lion’s head, a fish’s body and a mouth designed to spray water.

On Saturday, 28 February 2009, the weather contributed electricity.

A heavy late-afternoon downpour moved across central Singapore. At Merlion Park, the 8.6-metre statue stood in its familiar position overlooking Marina Bay.

Then lightning struck it.

A piece broke from the Merlion’s mane. Falling material damaged part of the wave-shaped structure at the statue’s base.

Nobody was hurt.

The strike left one of Singapore’s most recognizable symbols requiring inspection and repair. Scaffolding went up the following day so the damage could be examined.

The Merlion had already experienced a complicated civic life.

Its lion’s head referred to Singapura—the Lion City—while its fish body represented Singapore’s origins as a fishing village and its maritime history.

Completed in the early 1970s, the statue originally stood near the mouth of the Singapore River. Later development and the Esplanade Bridge reduced its visibility, so it was moved to its present waterfront position in 2002.

Seven years later, nature conducted another alteration.

The Merlion closed for approximately a month while repairs were carried out. When it returned to service, the work included lightning-protection measures.

That final detail completed the episode neatly.

Singapore had created an imaginary creature from two real animals, built it from concrete and moved it when a bridge obscured the view.

After the sky struck it, engineers added something its mythology had apparently omitted:

protection from thunderstorms.