Lightning, my uninvited house guest

[Ski213]

I’ve always had a healthy respect for lightning. Pretty impressive stuff. I’ve always enjoyed watching a storm roll through. I’ve been pretty up close and personal with it several times through the years. Never had it in the house as an uninvited guest till last Monday though. 
 

We had some storms roll through late afternoon. Not severe but bordering on it. They were mostly past us by 530. Around 6 I was in the kitchen doing some paperwork. Hadn’t even heard thunder for a bit. Out of nowhere, boom. Like right there. Blue flash and then the sound of water spraying out of something. Was an exposed water line behind the washing machine.  Shut the water and electric off as quick as I could. We have great water pressure to be out in the country. Amazing how much water can come out of a small hole in a short time. I opened up the tub faucet to try to drain down the system as quick as possible after shutting the supply off.  Had a friend go to town to get parts to repair the line while we cleaned up.  Looked like maybe it came in on the water line and jumped to the washer outlet. That’s where the hole was.  Got everything cleaned up and repaired.  Went to shut off the tub faucet before turning the water back on.  The handle was warm. Seemed odd touched the other faucet, also warm, touched the floor by the tub, hot.  Went to the crawl access quick like. Fire. There was a soft copper gas line that fed the water heater (not code) close to the supply lines for the tub.  Lightning got it as well. Luckily it lit off and didn’t allow gas to build up.  I kind of went reverse order for that situation and knocked the fire out and then shut off the gas.  Luckily it hadn’t lit off the floor joists yet. 
 

I’ve said all that to say this.  If you think your house has been hit by lightning, call 911, even if you don’t see an immediate issue. 
 

I got lucky. Many things went wrong but just as many went right. Know how to shut off your utilities. If you’re not comfortable doing that, evacuate. A good run is always better than a bad stand. 

[A-Jay]

Wow ~ 

That would get my attention.

Glad no one was hurt.

Thank You for sharing that.

A-Jay

 

[N Florida Mike]

Man, glad things turned out ok.

 

I threw some clothes in the dryer once and was leaving  to go to church. I was walking out the door and caught the faintest whiff of smoke, which caused me to go back in and check. Dryer was on fire. Got it turned off and  put out the fire. As big as the flames were, it hadnt gotten anywhere else! The house would have burned down no doubt had I left and not caught that slight whiff of smoke . Divine intervention!

[Bankbeater]

I think you were lucky. Glad everything ended up OK.

[12poundbass]

I’ve seen lightning do some pretty impressive things. I responded to an emergency gas leak one time. I arrive and the gas company was already there, so I talk with them. Lightning struck the house, traveled to the gas meter, down the tracer wire (plastic gas service) melted the service about 60 feet from the house, and created a fire ring in the front yard where it was leaking. 
 

But wait there’s more! It also traveled through the phone line to the phone ped, which was laying on the ground, and the inside was black with soot. The phone lines were melted together! 
 

Still not done. I get to the cable TV to locate that too. The lid to the cable TV ped  is laying 15 feet away from the ped. It appears the ground wire in the cable TV ped did it’s job in saving the cable main, but the force of the lightning launch that lid in the air. These peds are locked by the way. 
 

That’s by far the craziest thing I’ve personally seen lightning do with my own two eyes. I don’t screw around with lightning, especially working, considering the equipment I use is basically a lightning rod. Lol

[Way north bass guy]

Sounds like you had some mighty good luck there. Lightning is definitely not something to play around with. I’ve been up on 5 sections of scaffold ( basically a metal tower), and it’s started to rumble, a man can descend off stuff pretty quick when he wants to ?

[Log Catcher]

Glad everything turned out okay for you.

[slonezp]

Holy schnikeys!

[Glenn]

Great googly moogly!  Glad you were astute enough to find and solve the issue.

 

My next door neighbor's house got hit by lightening.  I about jumped out of my skin when it hit! It was so close it tripped all our GFI outlets. 

 

They got outside and inspected the house and called 911.  They told me later that everything that plugged in to an outlet got fried.  Refrigerator, TV, oven, garage door opener,  garbage disposal....you name it...toast.

 

It was then I got a whole-house lightening breaker installed.  Ok, so that's probably not the real name, but it's a breaker located between the fuse box and the rest of the house that trips in an event like that, preventing all your electronics from getting fried.

 

$110 for the part plus installation by a qualified electrician.  Considering the alternative, worth the investment.

 

[CountryboyinDC]

That was quick thinking and good action on your part OP.  I'm glad it turned out as well as it did for you.

39 minutes ago, Glenn said:

It was then I got a whole-house lightening breaker installed.

I think something like this is what you mean.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Siemens-20-Amp-6-5-in-Whole-House-Surge-Protected-Circuit-Breaker-QSA2020SPDP/202562776

They work, and if I had any space in my main panel (and they made such things for such an ancient breaker box), I'd put one in.

[Ski213]

@N Florida Mike that was a close call.  It no doubt would’ve been on the ground when you got back home. 
 

@12poundbass that is insane. Lightning really does what it wants I suppose.  Pretty much everything is a good conductor when there’s that much voltage involved. It’s just looking for ground but in your case it sounds like it picked several inconvenient paths. 
 

@Way north bass guy I’d imagine that was a quick descent from the scaffold. I was on a warehouse roof once when a storm rolled up. It was a big warehouse but a fast exit. Not sure how many ladder rings I skipped coming down, but it was several.
 

@Glenn money well spent. Not just for lightning. My parents house had an electrical issue a few years ago.  The neutral and the hot got together on the service drop. They did not have whole house surge protection. Additionally, a plumber had replaced some cooper lines with PEX.  He removed the ground from the water line and didn’t replace it. In the absence of an easy path to ground the power went looking everywhere. Anything that was on a surge protector survived.  Anything that wasn’t, didn’t.  The surge protectors didn’t survive but did their job. They had a couple light bulbs physically explode. Every appliance in the house was smoked. 
 

 

 

[Glenn]

Actually it's more like this https://www.homedepot.com/p/Eaton-Whole-House-Surge-Protector-CHSPT2ULTRA-1/204761136  which mounts on the outside of the panel.

[CountryboyinDC]

21 hours ago, Glenn said:

Actually it's more like this https://www.homedepot.com/p/Eaton-Whole-House-Surge-Protector-CHSPT2ULTRA-1/204761136  which mounts on the outside of the panel.

I've never seen one of those - it still needs a 2 pole 50A breaker, so it doesn't help me personally.  It reads as though it would be good for people that have electronics not plugged into a UPS or something else that reduces surges, and it would be very practical for that.  It does say it doesn't protect against direct lightning strikes, which I wonder if anything would, considering the carnage @Ski213 reported.

[royal0014]

I've had lighting run in to the house and lost several cordless phones,

satillite and internet boxes; etc.

The worse was 2 years ago ... lighting struck beside the road and blew the city water line out of the ground. About 40 yards away my Nissan took an unhealthy dose of 

EMP . Fried the ECM, several sensors and doodads ....

I'd had the car a week !!