What You Need to Know About Lightning and House Fires

4/5/2023 (Permalink)

The crackle of lightning and the roar of thunder are synonymous with stormy weather, but do you know how lightning damage can impact your home? According to National Geographic, lightning is caused by an imbalance between the ground and storm clouds, causing an electrical discharge. This impact can cause an electrical surge in your home, leading to a house fire if your house isn’t protected from the strike. While lightning and house fires seem to come from totally different worlds, they are often interconnected, and you can’t properly protect your home from one without guarding against the other. Below, we’ll discuss some little-known facts about lightning and how you can protect your home from them this spring as we get through storm season!

The More You Know: What Should You Know About Lightning During Tornado Season?

• Lightning strikes are intense, yes, but did you know that a lightning bolt can reach 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit? To put that into perspective, that’s about five times hotter than our sun’s surface!
• You may have heard the myth: lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. This is false! Lightning often strikes the same place multiple times, and tall, isolated objects are most prone to these strikes. 
• You may wonder how far lightning can travel if you’re driving or walking outside during a storm and hear lightning. Lightning can usually reach about 25 miles away from a storm’s center, but that doesn’t mean you should stay outside for too long when you see one strike. In this scenario, the best thing you can do is find a durable building to take shelter in as soon as possible. If you’re driving and you’re farther away from home or a study building, ensure that your vehicle has a hard-top roof. 

How Can You Protect Your Green Hills Home From A Lightning Strike This Year?

• Have you invested in surge protectors for your house to protect your appliances and other devices? That may be a smart move! You also want to ensure you unplug everything since that is the best way to protect your home from lightning.
• Check your homeowner’s insurance coverage! Even if you’ve read the policy front and back, you still want to ensure that your insurance plan covers lightning strikes, especially ones that can lead to house fires. 
• Lightning rods may also be something to consider when protecting your home from lightning strikes. This aims to impede the high-voltage electricity and direct it towards the ground instead of your home. Several lightning protection devices are created to protect your building from the impact of surges. 

Lightning is often overlooked when it comes to disaster preparation. However, that shouldn’t stop you from taking the necessary steps to prevent your home from a house fire caused by lightning. We hope the tips you learned above help you best prepare for storms this spring, but prevention doesn’t always mean total immunity from disasters altogether. If you need storm damage or fire damage restoration services, give SERVPRO of Belle Meade and West Nashville a call. All you have to do is contact us at (615) 242-9391, where a rep will ask you questions about your situation, so our team knows what equipment to bring to the scene. We take the headache away from a tough situation by arriving at a moment’s notice! 

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