I'm guessing Lightning Strike?

[Larry Morrison]

On inspection a few days back, I observed this. My best guess is it was a lightning strike. I was able to look at the area in the attic, there is no electrical anywhere near the area and the black wisps appear to be soot, it did transfer to my finger when I rubbed it. Lightning strike is all I could come up with. Also this home does sit kind of high on a hill and exposed. Located about a mile from the entrance of Zion National Park here in southern Utah.

[John Kogel]

I think you may be right about that. They got off lucky!

[Jerry Peck]

What did the roof look like?

That does look like a lightning strike, but there should either be a hole in the roof where the lightning blasted through or a repaired area.

The photos I've attached are where lightning hit a tile roof - blew the truss vertical apart inside at the truss it hit, then blew NM cable apart as it found a ground path and then blew other areas of the NM cable apart as the strike traveled along the NM cable.

The first photo is a palm tree the lightning hit first and blew the top off the tree.

[Larry Morrison]

The house had a newer roof on it with no visible damage. Not sure if the lightning strike was before or after the newer roof was applied. My guess is that the roof was installed within the last two years. Did not look like there was any damage at the top of the truss or at the plywood sheeting. Neither was there any sign of a repair to the sheeting or the truss.

[Jerry Peck]

If they replaced the roof, I wonder why they didn't repaint the exterior so that looked good too?