[TowerTalk] Lightning Hitting Chimney

[Bill Heinzinger]

As a long time mason contractor I saw many episodes exactly like this.
One even had a TV antenna on it with no damage other than the brickwork.
Owner didn't even know of the lightning strike.
I wrote up the estimate to repair chimney due to lightning damage and their
insurance paid without a question.

----- Original Message -----
From: <n4kg@juno.com>
To: <k9zm@frontiernet.net>; <TOWERTALK@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 1999 5:57 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Lightning Hitting Chimney


>
> Hi  Greg,
>
> I have seen lightning hit the power transformer next door
> while completely ignoring my 7 towers ranging from 40 to
> 140 ft with  20 HF Yagis and wire antennas.
>
> de  Tom  N4KG
>
> On Tue, 17 Aug 1999 15:27:16 -0500 "Greg Gobleman" <k9zm@frontiernet.net>
> writes:
> >
> > I just had the most amazing conversation with my contractor.  I had
> > called
> > him to check a roof leak next to a chimney in our bedroom.  He had
> > put the
> > roof on last year and we had just had a series of storms with 6"
> > rain and
> > high winds overnight a few days ago.  He could find nothing wrong
> > with the
> > flashing, the chimney however has a bunch of bricks which appear to
> > have
> > blown out in pieces and a new big crack that you could stick a
> > pencil in.
> > The contractor says it was hit by lighting and the heavy rain and
> > high wind
> > forced it in the crack to run out lower in the chimney, finally
> > ending up on
> > our bedroom ceiling.
> >
> > Now I'm no dummy, and I know that lighting will do what it wants to
> > do.  But
> > I looked at him, then the chimney, then at my 60' Rohn 25G tower 40
> > feet
> > away, with a 6el Telrex tri-bander, rotatable dipole for 40m and a
> > 2meter
> > vertical on top, for about 75' in total height.  Then I looked at
> > the
> > nearest anchor point about 8' away with 2 steel guys going to the
> > tower.
> > Further noting in my own mind that I had found no damage to anything
> > related
> > to the radio or any electronic device in our home, and asked, "
> > Don't you
> > think it would have hit the tower first or instead of the chimney."
> > He said
> > "Maybe it's grounded better."
> >
> > I can't wait for the insurance adjuster to see this.  Has anybody
> > ever
> > experienced anything like this?  Just curious.
> >
> > 73
> > Greg K9ZM
> >
> >
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