Three Facts About Lightning And House Fires

9/8/2021 (Permalink)

Lightning is one of the most potent weather-related natural phenomena there is, and it can wreak havoc on your Monroeville home or business property. However, there's an old saying we like to keep in mind: "Forewarned is forearmed," and that means the more you know, the better prepared you will be! To help you gain some lightning knowledge, we have three faqs about lightning to share:

Fact Number One: Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground. 

Within a thundercloud way up in the sky, many small bits of ice (frozen raindrops) bump into each other as they move around in the air. All of those collisions create an electric charge. After a while, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges. The positive charges - protons - form at the top of the cloud, and the negative charges or electrons form at the bottom of the cloud. Since opposites attract, this causes a positive charge to build upon the ground beneath the cloud. The ground's electrical charge concentrates around anything that sticks up, such as mountains, people, single trees, our buildings. The charge coming up from these points eventually connects with a charge reaching down from the clouds and - zap - lightning strikes!

Fact Number Two: Lightning can damage your home in several ways

Fire: Lightning can cause severe damage if it strikes your home. Due to the high temperatures, any flammable material in and outside your home puts you at risk of fire. Strikes can cause fires directly on contact, while additional materials can ignite when current passes through them and heats them to the ignition point. If your home has gas piping, lightning strikes may damage valves, regulators, or appliance connectors, causing flammable gas leakage and subsequent explosions.

Wiring: Lighting that strikes the windows, gutters, or other exterior conductive materials of your Monroeville home can jump to the electrical system, causing an explosive surge. This may then destroy the wires and cause a fire, as the wires melt and possibly ignite the materials. The surge can also damage your appliances (particularly electronics, such as computers and entertainment centers) if they are plugged into the electrical system at the time of the strike. Surge protectors can protect against small surges but are unlikely to prevent damage from a direct lightning strike, so you will want to unplug appliances, electronics, and other items during a storm.

Shock Waves: The sound of thunder is a shockwave caused by the rapid expansion of heated air around lightning. Since sound travels more slowly than light, it takes longer for you to hear the lighting sound than to see the bolt of light. Shock waves - which we call thunder - can sometimes be very destructive, causing structural damage and cracking in concrete, brick, cinderblock, and stone. Brick and stone chimneys are also particularly susceptible to this kind of damage, as the vibrations can damage the mortar.

Fact number three: SERVPRO of Huron & East Seneca Counties can help you recover from any damage you experience from a lightning strike! We can assess your property and advise you on installing a lightning protection system, which can keep you and your property safe and save you the time and money spent on damage from a lightning strike and fire. 

The most important fact for you to remember is that SERVPRO of Huron & East Seneca Counties is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to assist you with any disaster in your Monroeville home or business. We maintain all the necessary training needed to get you back to normal as soon as possible, and our tools are the best in the restoration industry. Besides fire damage from a lightning strike, we also handle storm damage, mold remediation, and more.

We can get your home or business Certified: SERVPRO Cleaned, too.

This franchise is Independently Owned and Operated.