Lightning strike damage: the hidden fire risk, the electrical and gas checks, and what the claim needs

A direct or nearby lightning strike can send a voltage surge through a house's wiring far beyond what the system is built to carry, and that surge can travel in through the electrical service, the phone line, or anything plugged into an outlet. The National Weather Service states plainly that "typical surge protectors will not protect equipment from a lightning strike," because a direct or very close strike carries far more energy than a standard surge protector is rated to absorb.

The visible signs vary by how much current reached a given outlet or device: a scorched outlet or switch plate, a breaker that tripped and will not reset, a device that will not power on, or one that still turns on but behaves erratically. None of those signs rules out damage in a device that looks fine, which is a question of what the surge did inside the unit, not what it did to the case. What to do with a device after a surge, water, or smoke event, and why powering one on too soon can turn a fixable problem into a permanent one, is covered in full on our electronics restoration page.

Yes, on some homes. A house's gas piping is part of the same conductive network as its wiring and plumbing, and lightning current can travel that piping looking for a path to ground. Corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST), a common flexible gas line material in newer construction and remodeling, has thin corrugated walls that a joint Lightning Protection Institute and National Association of State Fire Marshals release describes as vulnerable to this current, warning that it "can perforate holes in the CSST and allow gas leakage and fire."

Bonding, a connection between the gas piping and the home's electrical grounding system, is the control built into current code and manufacturer instructions for this risk. The Maryland Public Service Commission's consumer safety page states that this bonding "will reduce the likelihood of electrical arcing" and that it has been required by manufacturer instructions on new yellow CSST installations since 2006, with older systems recommended for a licensed electrician to check. Whether a given home's gas line was damaged, and whether its bonding is adequate, is a question for the gas utility and a licensed professional, not something a restoration crew determines on its own.

Lightning strikes the United States roughly 25 million times a year, and the National Weather Service reports it kills about 20 people and severely injures hundreds more annually, nationwide. Michigan is not among the most lightning-prone states, but it is far from lightning-free.

Vaisala's National Lightning Detection Network, the source the National Weather Service itself links for state-level lightning data, recorded 1,911,278 total lightning events over Michigan in 2019, close to the state's 2015-to-2019 average of 1,674,197 per year. That places Michigan 33rd of 51 states and the District of Columbia by lightning density, at roughly 28.9 lightning counts per square mile per year, middle of the pack nationally, not a low-risk zero. A home anywhere in Macomb or Oakland County sits inside a state that logs close to two million lightning events most years.

There is no single number worth repeating here, because a lightning loss ranges from one scorched outlet and a cracked rafter to a full attic fire with firefighting water throughout the house. What moves the cost: whether the strike started a fire or stayed an electrical and structural event only, how much of the roof or framing needs to be opened and repaired, whether contents and electronics need pack-out and inspection, and how much structural drying the firefighting water requires.

Prime's published Michigan fire damage restoration pricing, which covers the drying, cleaning, and structural side of a loss like this, is on its own cost page, linked below. Prime gives a written estimate on site, built from what the crew actually finds, before any work starts.