Lightening Strike in Sable Chase this afternoon
 

I just came down Canal St into Sable Chase. Lightening hit a home on the street behind Canal Street that runs into the pool and postal station. We had heard a horrible "boom" while on 466A.
I can only pray no one was in the home. Many, many fire and emergency trucks - very frightening. Waiting to hear something on the news.

Actually, that was in Virginia Trace...looks like north end of Spartanburg Way close to where Canal and Stillwater intersect. We were just in the general area and could see all the equipment and catastrophic damage to a large designer home. Let's hope all occupants are safe and sound.

Please tell us more as soon as you can.

Gas line in attic blow?


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Lightening Strike!
 

Wow! Yes we were coming down canal and saw some smoke and when we approached, we could see the house on fire. Flames coming out of the roof, but as we came around we could see the ceiling was already coming down inside.

What I don't understand, and maybe someone can explain, is there was at least 6 firetrucks and no one appeared be be in a hurry to do anything!!! Now, I'm sure they have their reasons, but I was wondering why they didn't appear to be jumping into action??? :shrug:

From what I know is that the woman that lives there is out of the country in Argentina. So, thank God, no one was inside (no pets either) and no one was hurt.

But, those flames were dangerously close to the neighbors on both sides. I would have been a nervous wreck! It's just awful.

When we were coming home from dinner, the smoke was still billowing and we did then see firemen with the hoses.

It's very scary. We saw a couple of lightening hits in the field across from us also.

I don't have any info on the home that was hit. Hopefully no one was injured.

I was driving west on 466A and then north on Canal probably around the time the home was hit. It was not raining but I saw several incredible lightening strikes which were immediately followed by deep rumbles of thunder. You could tell there was bad weather right on top of us. And guess what else I saw? People continuing to golf on Havana! Also saw a gentleman walking south on Canal. He appeared to be taking his afternoon stroll and had his umbrella in hand so he wouldn't get wet. I'll give the walker the benefit of the doubt that he was hopefully heading home to take cover. The golfers are another story. There's no polite way to say this ... some people are just really stupid!

We live on a golf course and see this all the time. I can't understand the mentality, but it seems to be pervasive among the golfers here.

The gas line in the attic blew. The firemen could do nothing until the gas was turned off.

If it's true that a lightning strike in TV once again caused an attic gas line to disintegrate and destroy a house, I have two questions for you:

1) Do you have a lightning rod system on your home?

2) Are you aware of any efforts on the part of the Villages to improve construction specs to protect homes from gas line explosions due to lightning strikes?

I was at the tennis club at Glenview when I saw the emergency equipment go by. About 40 minutes later I passed the house and the roof was in flames. I assume they hosed down the adjacent houses - surprising that there wasn't damage to them. Appears to be a large designer home with pool. Thank goodness no one was hurt but the damage seems severe.

If my house had a gas line in the attic, the developer would get a written request to do a redesign immediately. If this keeps happening people will eventually get killed.


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I imagine that gas lines in the attic are to code, but it just doesn't seem right or safe.

i do not believe lightening rods on your roof will protect your house from a direct lightening strike. I believe they are for the transient strikes nearby.

Someone might comment on this statement.

Protection System
 

instead of just a rod it seems there should be multiple rods or a Lightning protection system. Looked online and have supplied a link. From reading up, dont think just one rod will do the trick. You need to have a system of rods or other protection items set up. Even then that will not protect from a direct strike.
During the storms yesterday in which this home was struck, a rather large strike hit here at our plant beside TV. There was a rather bright purplish light followed by a sizzling noise then the loudest boom. Then a bunch of smoke came off the ground. It went into the ground, but melted all the paint off the fences around the area, and still knocked out all of our computer systems and managed to fry one rather expensive piece of equipment that is hooked to a expensive surge protection system. The strike was about 100 yards from the main building. It managed to cause us alot of headaches at that distance. Had it been a direct hit on the building, our protection system would not have been able to save us from alot of damage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightni...tection_system

Disasterous
 

Would this not have happened if the house were all electric??

Seems like a LOT of lightning these days. (Or better reported?)
 

We can only guess. It PROBABLY wouldn't have been so flammable if it didn't have gas lines in the attic, but I understand that is code in Florida..

We have had some bad hits recently here in West Chester too, (more than usual).

It really is scary.

Very lucky
 

That's one of the reasons I DON"T LIKE GAS.When we looked at our house we didn't want gas.Your right FD had to wait for gas to be shut off. back home there were curb side shut offs for gas, most gas lines ran into the basement, not having a basement the only other choice is direct burried ridgid plastic which is what they're doing on Long Island now. They used to use the black pipe but that rusts over time. Why they don't do direct burried here I don't know. After spending 42 years as a fireman I have a lot of respect for gas. Have seen many a home and buisnesses destroyed. Lightening is another big problem and your right nothing stops a direct hit. Thank the good lord nobody was home at the time a home can be replaced.

:shrug: Why not shut off the gas at the meter, which is above ground by the house. Only takes 1/4 turn. Same place where gas company shuts it off for inhouse repairs or to lock it off for non-payment. Check it out if you have gas just so that you know where to shut it off in an emergency. All you need is a crescent wrench or large pliers.

Seems as though newest homes are all-electric and do not have gas available. Is this true?

Chuck,

It is true - there are no more gas homes being built in TV. Many of us have added LP for stoves, grills, pools, etc.

Thanks for the info.
 

Thanks for letting me know why I saw all the fireman standing around. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they seemed to be doing nothing. I knew there had to be a good reason. I have the utmost respect for firefighters and I knew there had to be a good reason.

Yes, all new homes are electric and this is probably why. I really didn't want electric at first, but this is the second home we've seen destroyed by lightening, so I'm very happy with electric now.

I wonder is something can be done about those gas lines running through the attics. It just doesn't seem like a sensible thing to do even from the onset! :shrug:

According to the article in the Daily Sun, the firefighters got out of the house because it was too dangerous and since the house was empty their safety came first.

Went by the house--WOWEE!

What surprises me is how close houses were on either side and it doesn't appear to have done any damage to them.

GMONEY - I found the following excerpt from the article to be extremely important.
"No lightning protection system can be relied upon to "contain" or "control" lightning completely (nor thus far, to prevent lightning strikes), but they do seem to help immensely on most occasions of lightning strikes"

A properly installed LPS will mitigate much of the damage potentially caused by lightning. A google of pictures of lightning strikes will show many pictures of tall buildings being directly struck by lightning. So structures do get hit, and all of these tall buildings are built with LPS. So you can draw the conclusion they do in fact work, although nothing is ever gauranteed. One site I found says the Empire State Building gets hit directly between 50 and 100 times per year. And I've not heard of it being dammaged.

I had a system installed on my home in TV last year right after the house in Sunset Pointe got destroyed. My system includes specific grounding for the gas lines in the attic and the gas main, as well as the normal "rods" on the roof. I hope to never be able to tell you it worked or it didn't - but on the off chance that it would work to mitigate damage, the investment seemed minor. Frankly, I can't understand why everyone in TV doesn't get one installed. In my entire life I've heard of a few trees being hit, maybe a neighborhood transformer, but since last year, I've seen 3 strikes that destroyed 1 home and severly damaged the others, and heard about 2 or 3 more. So the Lightning Capital of the World (as Central FL is sometimes called) lives up to its name.

Look around - the fire house on Buena Vista at Liberty Park, and most of the buildings in LSL have protection. All the airports have them. All the major municipal buildings have them. Why would they have them if they don't work?

Cost of that system
 

What was the approximate cost for that protection and who did you hire to do it? More details appreciated....thanks.

Lightning Rods
 

SMALL DOG SEZ
Since ole Ben Franklin came up with the idea, nobody is completely sure if the lightning rods protect or attract and may indeed do both in a given storm :shrug: .............. Florida is the lightning capital of the world so you best learn to live with it :crap2: .............. a active storm cell win our vicinity will pop the GFI breakers in our houses ....... now my apology seems there is a shut off at the meter ( could not imagime otherwise but foolishly didnot check) ...... gas lines in the attic is simply poor design & dangerous & a cheap expedient .........

Small Dog.................Check my previous entry. There is a shutoff at the meter and it only requires a 1/4 turn with a crescent wrench or pliers. Check it out as it could save you headaches in the future.

SECO can do the system for the house also. But they will tell you up front, it will not protect from a direct strike. This is from SECO's websiteon the home surge protecton system.

"5. Will it protect me from something as severe as a direct lightning strike?
No!- nothing is a complete guarantee from a direct lightning strike. Lightning has been
measured well in excess of 250,000 amps. No SPD device currently available can
effectively handle such high surge energy."

I have seen mutliple buildings with Protection with big burn marks and burnt down even with Protection installed. If it is a direct Hit, nothing will help.
We had a hit in our place yesterday. neighbor house got struck. messed the lania up pretty good.

Turning off the Gas Meter
 

I have been a firefighter for 30 plus years -
standard procedure is to use a spanner wrench, it has a special slot in it, to turn off gas at meter- - most firefighters carry one in a pocket
my guess on their tactics was it became untenable inside so they backed out and went into defensive mode - sometime you simply can not get it from inside because of the chance of collapse - personnel safety, if no life in danger, is the primary responsibility of any fire officer and crew - it is dangerous enough without trying to showboat,
Peace

our meters are outside as we don't have cellars. Tough to get used to not having one but getting used to living on a slab.

Do you have a house?

Probably has nothig to do with it.

Gmoney - doesn't SECO only do the whole house surge protector? I did not think they also did the rods or grounded gas lines.

And where are some of the multiple buildings with protection that you mention? I would very much like to get a better understanding of the risks.

How the install gets done is important. One of the foks near me has rods on the roof but the ground lines cross the gutters which I understand is a against "code". I would expect if they took a hit the groun wires would cross with the gutters and cause sever damage. The job just appears wrong.

And what of all the large buildings in cities with documented multiple direct hits per year? Why did a protection system work for them? What is the basis for your conjecture that "nothing will help"?

Sorry, I don't mean to be annoying, but I have put consierable faith in the fact that the system will protect my home from catastrophe. And I'd like a better unerstanding of what you are basically saying is a complete waste of money and I shouldn't trust it.

Can anyone tell me why the gas lines are or were not not run through the slab. The floor plans for all the homes of a certain model are all the same for the stove, furnace and water heater locations. I know it is easer to work on if located in the attic but look the the results.

This maybe a moot point since all new construction is all electric.

One reason why the gas lines are run in the attic, as well as the water lines, is this: As the concrete slab cures over the years, it has a tendency to crack and settle. This is normal. A gas or water line in a slab near one of these cracks could be damaged to the point of rupture. It would be very difficult to find where the damage was and repair it. It could be just short of jack-hammering much of your floor. I don't think there is any house in The Villages that is more than a year or two old that does not have cracks in the slab. If the lines were run in the slabs, I am not an expert, but I would bet that there would be a lot more problems with this design than with the lines run in the attics.

IMHO, I would rethink putting "considerable faith" in ANY SYSTEM designed to protect you from lightning. Lightning goes where it wants, and there is nothing that humans have devised that can stop it (I am open to be corrected here on large-scale systems, but for residential homes, I stand by this). If a home experiences a direct hit or a near-miss, consider your precautions worthless.

This is not to say that lightning rods and other larger-scale systems are useless. They can help "guide" direct hits away from the main structures. Whole house protection isn't really a bad idea either. I just wanted to address the "faith" part. Remember, in the end though, this rule still applies:

Lightning goes where IT WANTS.

Although it is annoying to manage, there is one guaranteed method to save your electronics from lightning (unless your home burns down): Unplug them from the outlet. Yes, it is a nuisance, but IT WILL save thousands of dollars over the years. I can attest to that.

Unplug your phones & cable modems too. Lightning loves to eat those things.

a few, but none with gas in the attic, especially where lightning strikes are common.


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Lightning Presentation
 

I volunteer in the Study Group on Lightning. Most recently,we have authored articles in the VHA and POA newsletters this past June to help Villagers make an informed decision on lightning protection for their homes. This includes both the direct lightning that was experienced again this week in Va. Trace and the more common indirect lightning strikes that damage your electronic equipment. We have a 30-minute Power Point presentation that we offer to Village clubs and groups. The presenatation is intended to inform and claify many of the myths and misunderstandings about lightning - many examples of this are displayed in this discussion by other contributors. Again, we are Village volunteers and not affilated with any firm that is in anyway associated with the lightning protection industry. Please contact us at lhatha@aol.com if you are interested in scheduling a presentation.

IrhnhI, Do you have a site on line that we could read your findings?

Here they are:

POA Website Go down to page 10.

VHA Website

Thanks Champion6 - I read both articles and my faith is restored.