Health Science struck by lightning

By Cooper Hillman, Assistant News Editor

The Canisius University Health Science Center has stood as a part of Canisius long before it was even considered a university. The building has been the home to many biology, chemistry and psychology classes since the days of Canisius College. However, the building had been put up for sale on the real estate market as far back as late 2021. Along with this, several departments had their classes moved to Horan O’Donnell and Science Hall recently. Despite all of that, it seems like that isn’t where the changes stop for the building.

Over the summer, during a thunderstorm on the night of Aug. 2, 2026, Health Science was struck by lightning. At around 8:45 p.m., the Buffalo fire department arrived on scene to secure the area and make sure that no one near the building was harmed. There were no reported injuries related to the incident and the section of Jefferson Ave. was closed between East Delevan Ave. and Beverly Road. Reportedly, bricks were seen falling from the building’s chimney with more assessment needed on the status of the building.

The impact of the incident has affected students in many ways. Matthew Morcelle, a junior, stated, “It makes me upset because it was extremely nostalgic, especially being an upperclassman and actually having many classes in there. It kind of hurts that we never got to say goodbye to the place.” Some students didn’t even know about the incident. Gianluca Collana, a sophomore stated, “I thought someone told me earlier, but I never really knew what happened to the building, all in all though, good job lightning!”

The incident involving Health Science has affected Canisius in more ways than one, and although it may save some long winter walks to class, it’s not the goodbye many students wanted.