Lightning protection

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Radio interview source: Kim Loehr, marketing communications consultant, Lightning Protection Institute

Every thunderstorm, I worry about our barn getting struck by lightning because it's full of hay. We have two lightning rods on top, though, and it's never been hit. I used to worry about lightning zapping the big old hollow hackberry tree next to our house and having it fall on my sons' rooms, so I had it cut down.

The majority of lightning fires happen between June and August. Lightning crackles with approximately 30 million volts of electricity, so without the proper precautions, a strike to your home or outbuildings might mean disaster.

Kim Loehr is the communications consultant for the nonprofit Lightning Protection Institute. She says lightning fires are a tragedy you can avoid if you rig your structures with a full lightning protection system.

"The full system includes air terminals -- they're the rods -- down conductors, bonding, grounding, and then surge arresters for the panel box, and sometimes surge suppression for your appliances," Loehr says. "But, all of that needs to follow national safety standards, which means you need to have a specialized contractor who's licensed and certified and educated in lightning protection."

So hire an installer certified by Underwriters Laboratories.