Lightning Crashes. What if it Hits Your House?

7/12/2021 (Permalink)

“Lightning crashes… like a rolling thunder chasing the wind…” 

The band Live talked about lightning in the context of life-changing events of birth and death. Lightning itself is often just a natural occurrence of a loud light show that won’t affect your life. However, it can be a life-changing event if a bolt of lightning hits your home, causing your power to go out and worse. 

What should you do after lightning strikes your house and you’ve ensured that no one in your house has been hurt? The first thing you need to do is see if that lightning storm has caused a fire. How can you tell? You’ll either smell smoke or something burnt, or see the actual fire. 

If you smell or see anything concerning, get out of your house safely and call the fire department to handle the situation. Once you’re able to be safely back in the house, you’ll want to take care of the resulting smoke and soot damage and rebuild if necessary by hiring a storm damage restoration expert, like SERVPRO. 

Note: Even if there isn’t a fire, there may still be an impact to the wiring in your house from the bolt of lightning. Look for any of these issues of wiring issues in your house, and have an electrician take a look ASAP to prevent a house fire: 

• A burning smell, electronic burning odor, or odd odor near your outlets. This is one of the primary warning signals of faulty wiring. If you smell a pungent burning aroma, turn off the power immediately and call an electrician. The electricity may have arced inside the panel, causing a scorched electrical outlet. 
• Flickering or dimming lights. 
• An outlet that’s hot to the touch. Your electrical outlet and light switch should never be hot when you touch it. 

If you need help with your home storm damage restoration, take a look at the steps of our fire damage restoration process, which includes removal of soot and smoke from all surfaces. Contact us here at SERVPRO of Haverhill / Newburyport for an assessment of your fire damage in Massachusetts.