It’s Fire Prevention Week! Could Your Home be at Risk to Fire Sparked by Lightning?

Your home should be a safe haven for you and your family.  But even the most safety-conscious homeowner may not have considered a risk that affects thousands of homeowners each year.  Lightning associated with thunderstorms and sometimes hurricanes can pose a variety of fire hazards and these fires have highlighted the dangerous and destructive impact that lightning can have on protected homes and structures.

According to a recent National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) report, titled “Lightning Fires and Lightning Strikes” fire departments in theU.S. respond to an estimated 24,600 home lightning fires each year.  These home fires caused an estimated average of 12 civilian deaths, 47 civilian injuries and $407 million in property damage per year.  Despite these staggering statistics, lightning is often overlooked as a specific peril, even though substantial claims and great devastation result from it.  What’s unique about lightning is that it doesn’t discriminate according to geographical regions, as most areas of the country are susceptible to lightning strikes.  Since lightning strikes more than 250,000 times per year and the vast majority of homes in theU.S. do not have lightning protection systems, there is a real potential for danger and destruction.

Just this summer, an elderly man and his granddaughter died after lightning sparked a house fire in Louisville,Kentucky. The elderly man was bedridden and his granddaughter was trying to get him out of the house.  According to Louisville firefighters, lightning struck a 80-ft tree and entered a phone wire that traveled through the rear of the house.  Melted wire indicated that the phone line had carried lightning’s electricity into the basement of the home.  A neighbor who witnessed the event, described the severity of the fire as “like having a blow torch coming out of the house.”   Sadly, the elderly man died of his injuries at the scene and the granddaughter was later declared dead at a Louisville hospital.

LPI is seizing Fire Prevention Week as an opportunity to remind the public of the importance of lightning protection systems in helping to prevent property loss, injury and death during lightning storms.  When fire (or lightning!) strikes, your home could be engulfed in smoke and flames in just a matter of minutes, so it’s important to have a fire escape plan in place to help your family be prepared and get out quickly.  This year’s NFPA’s campaign theme focuses on the importance of fire escape planning and practice.  According, LPI supports the “Have 2 Ways Out” theme in conjunction with Fire Prevention Week, October 7-13, 2012. Visithttp://www.fpw.org for more information.