ORLANDO, Fla. — Crews are cleaning up a home that was hit by lightning last night.
“The house shook, it was like a bomb going off.” Bill Grooten says his next-door neighbor’s home got hit by lightning on Blue Water Circle.
“We were just chatting and then that storm hit, holy gees.” The homeowner told us he was inside his Waterford Lakes residence when lightning struck, prompting him to run outside for safety.
Overwhelmed by the experience, he was unable to speak on camera.
Drone 9 showed us extensive damage, so we decided to talk to experts about how to protect your home from lightning fires like this one.
“The only thing you can do for a direct strike is install lightning rods. They’re placed on the apex of the roof, they’re low profile,” said William Burden of WB Lightning Rods.
Burden continues, “The rods are around 12 inches tall and cost several thousand dollars. They’re hooked up to a heavy copper conductor cable that runs through all of them. They go straight to the ground, 10 feet deep into the ground, in various locations.”
“To be directly hit by lightning is relatively rare, but lightning hitting your home can also do a lot of damage,” says Channel 9’s Certified Chief Meteorologist Tom Terry.
He further states that power companies can install surge arrestor devices on meters to stop surges from entering a home. “And then if it gets past that, that’s where your power strips come in. Make sure you have all your electronics hooked up to these.”
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