Your Home’s Risk of Lightning Fires | SERVPRO® of Northeast Charlotte

9/28/2022 (Permalink)

If you are dealing with smoke or fire damage from a recent fire, call SERVPRO of Northeast Charlotte to learn about a restoration solution for your is

Whenever fire affects your home, it can be dangerous and cause extensive damage. Thankfully, many internal home fires can be prevented by staying attentive to any cooking or being responsible for flames you light. However, when the fire risk originates naturally, it can be much harder to prevent.

Thankfully, being personally struck by lightning is still a rare occurrence, but lightning strikes on houses are actually relatively common. Approximately 70,000 damage claims were reported due to lightning in 2020. If your home is struck by lightning, take the following precautions to help reduce your risk of damage or injury.

Lightning Formation

Lightning begins as a giant spark that travels from the clouds to the ground (or your roof). Normally, lightning is associated with severe weather, but it can also happen during forest fires, heavy snowstorms and even dry conditions.

Lightning and Your Home

If lightning does strike your home, it can be immediately a dangerous situation and will often start a fire due to the intense heat and transfer of electrical current. If a fire does break out, you might not notice it right away if it starts in your attic or in one of your walls.

Even if you don’t see the fire, you will probably immediately know what happened because lightning strikes are immensely loud and can produce a burning smell as they burn whatever they touch on the way down.

Installing a lightning rod can help reduce the impact of damages to your home. A lightning rod is designed to help deflect and absorb the impact of a lightning strike so your home doesn’t have to take the full force of its energy.

It might also be a good idea to buy a surge protector for your electrical panel to avoid a major problem if the strike hits your electrical box.

Lightning in the Area

If your home avoids a direct lightning hit during a storm, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are out of the woods! If a strike hits a neighboring house, it can also start an out-of-control fire if the flames aren’t controlled quickly. An average of 9,000 wildfires are caused by lightning strikes every year.

Reduce the risk of your property catching fire by cleaning up brush or dead leaves, and check your smoke detectors every month to ensure they are ready to alert you of any danger.

If you do encounter a fire, call 911 immediately and exit your home as soon as you can. When the fire is out and it is safe to re-enter your home, call us at SERVPRO of Northeast Charlotte.

Fire damage can be extensive and tricky to restore, but we are highly trained and passionate about the restoration process. We will get you back into your fully restored home right away!

Have you experienced smoke or fire damage in your home? Call us today to get the restoration finished fast.