Fire Consumes the Offerers of the Incense (16:35).
‘And fire came forth from Yahweh, and devoured the two hundred and fifty men who offered the incense.'
Then fire came down from heaven and devoured the band of Levites who were offering incense. Compare Leviticus 10:2. This seems to have been the especial fate for offering incense wrongly. The thought may have been as a reaction to the desecration of what was holy, the fire of judgment, or as a means of purifying the place where they had been, the fire of cleansing (compare Isaiah 4:4 where both are in mind). The text is not specific on whether this happened at the same time. That was irrelevant. What mattered was that Yahweh had vindicated the Aaronic priesthood.
As Korah had been offering the incense with them it is possible that he was included. Interestingly we are nowhere told what happened specifically to Korah. Numbers 26:10 tells us that he died at the same time but is ambiguous about exactly how. The concentration here was on Dathan and Abiram. This would seem to confirm that they and their Reubenite supporters had been the greater overall threat, and he but the front man with individual ambitions, shared by the band of Levites gathered with him. As his sons survived (Numbers 26:11) his whole family do not appear to have been involved. It would also seem to confirm that Korah was consumed with the idea of the priesthood for himself rather than overall rebellion.
We must assume that the non-mention of Korah was deliberate, however he died. The point being made is that he was now a non-man, a non-mentionable, his name had been blotted out of Israel. It was left to all to recognise that he either perished along with his band of Levites, or with his fellow-conspirators (Numbers 26:8-10).
Whether the fire was a thunderbolt or a particularly ferocious result of lightning strikes is left to us to surmise. But whichever it was, it was both particular with regard to its victims and cumulative in its effect.