I believe the reason that few houses take a direct hit is the fact that they have nearby power poles with the highest wire being a ground wire, and each pole is grounded. The pole close to our house has been hit hard twice (we are on high ground), and then the bolt of lightening split over to the big maple tree in our front yard. As the bolt traveled down the tree, it blew a path of bark off, and when it hit the roots, it blew the the dirt and grass off the top of the major roots. Enough juice was left to travel down our nearby well 320 ft to the pump motor to destroy it, and the pressure switch in the basement. But we did not have a fire.
By comparison, my SIL lives a few miles from here in a subdivision that has all burried electrical cables going to the houses. There are no power poles in that neighborhood. One night they took a lightening strike to their brick fireplace chimney, blowing bricks all over, destroying their deck and landing a bunch of bricks on their neighbor's roof. The lightening blew the sheetrock off their living room wall, but much of the juice followed the roof top chimney damper cable right down to the basement fireplace, where it also blew some sheetrock off the wall, but worse was that it totally shattered the glass fireplace doors, embedding glass in the other 3 walls and all the furniture and carpet. Luckily the house did not start on fire.
Now when I hear of house fires caused by lightening, I see that most of them are in neighborhoods that have burried electrical and telephone service. Thus the houses are the high point for the lightening to hit.
If I owned a big tall barn (and I love them), it would have the lightening arrestors and ground cables, even though they may be expensive.
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Today's Featured Article - Memories of an IH Super A When I was ? up to 10, I worked on my Papaw's farm in Greeneville, TN every summer. As I grew older (7), it was the thrill of my day to ride or drive on the tractor. My Papaw had a 1954 IH Super A that he bought to replace a Cub. My Papaw raised "baccer" (tobacco) and corn with the Super A, but the fondest memory was of the sawmill. He owned a small sawmill for sawing "baccer" sticks. The Super A was the powerplant. When I was old enough (7 or 8), I would get up early and be dressed to
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