Ways to prevent lightning strikes from hitting your home

Aug 21, 2023

Reporter

First thing you want to do is have an electrician check your electric system and make sure it's properly grounded.

Homeowners can be proactive to prevent their homes from being struck by lightning, which can lead to a fire.

First thing you want to do is have an electrician check your electric system and make sure it's properly grounded.

The next step is getting a lightning rod installed.

Elemental Electrical Owner Seth Westbrook Toker explained that grounding is a method where conductive components of a house are tied to the ground.

“We actually drive eight-foot-long rods into the dirt and tie that with some wire and all of that runs back to electrical systems. If anything, bad occurs with two much voltage then it goes into the ground,” Westbrook Toker said.

He said getting a lightning arrester on your home or getting a lightning rod installed in your yard will help protect your home.

“Those have a really high success rate. I've been quoted from an engineer, you’re a looking at an 87-percent success rate of the lighting strikes direct hits on a house are safely directed to the ground with no damage to the house,” Westbrook Toker said.

Lightning strikes are unpredictable, so it is best to be proactive.

“Prevention is better than reactivity. We put in breakers in breaker panels to prevent damage when something goes wrong, we don't put the breakers in after you have a house fire, it's before. Same thing with lighting prevention, you put up the system first and if it ever occurs it's directed appropriately,” Westbrook Toker said.

Outside of a fire being caused by lightning, Westbrook Toker said most of the damage, homeowners never see.

“Sometimes you can see a burnt outlet or a burnt switch and it will have some smoke damage. Often, it's your electrical components like the circuit board of your washer or your refrigerator and it simple doesn't work the way it used to or it just stops all together,” Westbrook Toker said.

A North Chattanooga home was struck by lightning, leading to a fire that injured two firefighters.

Reporter