A Kelowna, B.C., man is counting his blessings — and throwing out many of his electronic devices — after a lightning strike zapped his home with millions of volts of electricity.The bolt hit the house Sept. 3, during a severe thunderstorm in the B.C. Interior city, Steve Tuck told CBC News. Tuck said he and his dog Sunny had just come into the building after it started to rain when it happened."There was just this huge light that filled the house. My computer beside me sparked, the screen went huge bright, then dark, and then all the lights went out," Tuck said."It was a little scary, to say the least."
His telephones, television sets and stereo were also "fried," and two light switches blew out of the wall and flew more than two metres across the room, Tuck said.His metal roof was also damaged. The destruction was confined to the upper part of the house."I'm really glad I was one floor below this and not in this room," he said
A spokesman for the company restoring Tuck's home said direct lightning strikes on houses do happen but they are rare."We've seen … maybe a few dozen claims. And you've got to remember that we've been in business for 27 years," said Keith Stutters, owner of Stutters Disaster Kleenup.But lightning incidents do cause extensive damage, Stutters said. Lightning strikes carry up to 100 million volts of electricity, according to Environment Canada's website. Despite owning the only building in his neighbourhood to be hit, Tuck is looking at the bright side. He said he asked a worker with Stutters's company whether he ever had to go back to the same house twice to deal with a lightning strike, and the answer was "no." "Well, that's the good news," Tuck said.
No comments:
Post a Comment