National Lightening Safety Awareness Week

6/9/2022 (Permalink)

National Lightening Safety Awareness Week started in 2001 to bring attention to lightening being such an underrated killer. Since the start of this awareness week, fatalities due to lightening strikes has reduced from around 55 a year to less than 30 per year. It is encouraged during National Lightening Safety Awareness Week that you learn more about it and how to keep yourself and your family safe. 

Outdoor activities should be stopped immediately when

1. You see lightening

2. You hear thunder. Thunder can sometimes be heard from distances up to 10 miles away

3. If the skies look threatening. Storms can develop quickly and overhead as they move into the area. 

SERVPRO of Morris/Ottawa does receive a handful of calls each year from homeowners requesting assistance after a lightening strike enters their home causing fire damage to their home. Lightening can enter a structure from through a direct hit, through wires or pipes that extend outside the structure or through the ground. Once inside your home, lightening can travel through plumbing, electrical, and even through metal wires or bars that are in concrete walls and floors. 

One solution to keep your home safe is to have lightening rods and the accompanying protection system professionally installed. They are designed to protect from a direct lightening strike and lightening initiated fires. These rods do not keep your home from being hit by lightening but rather intercepts a strike giving it a conductive path so the electrical discharge can properly disperse safely into the ground. 

If your home suffers a fire loss from a lightening strike or any other reason, SERVPRO of Morris/Ottawa is always ready to assist in the clean up and restoration process.