Close Call for the shop

[Warren46]

Last night I woke up standing next to the bed wondering what had exploded in the back yard. There had been a bright flash of light and similtaneous shot like a rifle only louder.

This morning I walked out to see if there had been any damage and there was a 6' X 2" by 2" piece of oak stripped of its bark that had split from one of the large oaks next to my shop. Then I noticed a couple of pieces of shingle and roof boards laying about 20' away from where the piece of oak was laying.

I looked up and noticed a 6" hole in the overhang of the shop roof. To large to have resulted from the splinter of oak that came out of the tree. Went inside the shop but the lights did not work. Fortunately there was no damage inside but none of the breakers were thrown. I went to the panel at the house 200' away and discovered that the 100 amp breaker for the shop and a few other breakers were open. I closed the breakers and everything works fine.

It appears that the only damage is the hole in the roof overhang and a 6' gash in the oak tree. I count myself fortunate that there was no fire and no one was hurt.

 

[cskipper]

Wow - glad it turned out as well as it did!

 

[TracyP]

Wow - glad it turned out as well as it did!

+1:thumbs_up

 

[MarkE]

Lightning?

Whew, close call. Scary.

 

[Sealeveler]

Glad no one was hurt and not too much damage.May check your ground rods for burns.
Tony

 

[CaptnA]

Glad that's all that happened. Sounds like more than enough.
Last year our well got zapped. 440 feet of pipe up, a new pump, 440 feet of pipe back down and we thought we were through. A trifle labor intensive.
A day later we found the microwave, cordless phone, and a cell phone charger needed replacement.

 

[Tarhead]

Glad everything is OK! It was quite a light show last night.

 

[junquecol]

Glad both you and your shop are OK. But you most likely will have to take the oak tree down. Pines tolerate lightening strikes, but oaks don't.

 

[Charles Lent]

About 14 years ago my shop took a similar hit. A 40' pine tree next to the shop had taken a direct hit, blowing about 16' of the top of the tree completely off and removing a 4" wide strip of bark down the side of the tree to one of the roots. No real significant damage to the shop was immediately obvious, except for two 1" X 4" slots in the siding directly above the corners of the metal skinned passage door (located near the tree). Several breakers in the shop panel had also tripped and were reset with no difficulty.

Three days later I was fortunate to be sitting at the workbench in the middle of my shop when the electric outlet behind the radial saw exploded with a significant pop and fire came out of it, setting fire to the plywood wall above the outlet. I jumped up, threw the breaker off and then threw water on the fire to put it out. Had I not been sitting there at that very moment my shop would have certainly burned down. It left a 2' high burn mark on the wall above the outlet.

When I dis-assembled the (duplex) outlet one tool had been plugged into it and I discovered that the plug's prongs were welded in. After cutting the plug free and removing the outlet from the wall I discovered that the power and neutral terminals had arc marks and melting across through the center of the body of the receptacle between each other. I then opened the main panel to check it and found that the main aluminum ground wire of the shop feeder from the house showed burn marks between it and the neutral buss, which were almost 1" apart. The shop feeder is 170' long, and runs underground and under my house through the crawlspace to the main house panel, which is located on the opposite end of my house. None of the house breakers nor the shop main breaker had tripped during this strike, but our Alaskan Malamute dog had been laying on the floor of the family room directly above where this power cable passes underneath. She became very afraid of thunderstorms after this, so I believe that she must have received a significant shock from it.

After repairing the shop damage and closely checking the rest of the shop and house wiring, I added an 8' ground rod to the shop panel and a third ground rod to the main house panel (already had 2). I've also added an 8' ground rod to the small panel that's in the well house. I've also added a whole house surge arrester at the house main panel. As with clamps, you can never have too many ground rods on your electric system.

Charley

 

[Warren46]

Re: Close Call for the shop Act II

Who says lightning never strikes the same place twice. About 11:00 pm last night our dog woke LOML with frantic pushes with his nose. There was lightning and thunder again and I thought he was just being skittish from the excitement of last night. As I was calming him down I noticed that the lights were on in the shop but I was pretty sure I had turned them off yesterday when I came in. Then I realized that the light was not fluorescent white but kind of orange. I told my wife to call 911 and went to see if there was anything I could do. All four walls and the ceiling were beginning to burn. I noticed more bark and splinters on the driveway from the same oak tree that had been hit the night before.
Fortunately the fire department was there in less than 10 minutes and put the fire our quickly. Only damage is the electrical system and the insulation.
I don’t think there was significant damage to the machinery or tool but I have not had a chance to test them out yet as there obviously is no electric power in the shop.
I do want to thank Kan U (the dog) for being persistent and concerned. Otherwise I suspect the shop would have been a total loss.

 

[Tarhead]

I hope you're able to make something special out of that tree when you take it down. The Cherokee thought highly of wood from trees struck by lightning...especially twice.

 

[McRabbet]

Wow -- talk about an amazing story and a mighty canny dog! You were most fortunate, indeed!

 

[Warren46]

I hope you're able to make something special out of that tree when you take it down. The Cherokee thought highly of wood from trees struck by lightning...especially twice.

If I have to take the tree down there will be a lot of special things comming out of it. It is about 30" diameter breast high and a good 40' to the first limb.

Warren

 

[LeftyTom]

Well snap, Warren, at least the roof damage was outside. When lightning stuck a tree in my backyard, I found pieces of that tree in my gutter, a good 100ft away.

 

[Bob Carreiro]

Phew!!! That could have been a lot worse! Glad everything (else) is OK.

 

[Charles Lent]

Wow, two times in 2 nights!

It's great that the firemen were able to save most of your shop. You should reward your dog somehow. He certainly earned a steak or something. However, the firemen sometimes do more damage than the fire, with the amount of water that they spray around. Now everything in your shop is likely wet and the tools are all beginning to rust. At the very least, get some WD-40 and spray it on everything metal. Remember to do the hand tools in the drawers too. Then wait for the insurance adjuster. Of course, you should not spray it on any tool that you would rather replace. Let it rust up good so they consider it a total loss.

Charley