Lightning becomes dramatic, dangerous presence

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This Greg Badger photo of lighning was taken Saturday, August 1.Greg Badger

August 09, 2009

By Anita Burke

Mail Tribune

As a fire investigator, Randy Cooper hadn't seen anything quite like the bolt of lightning that shot through a metal roof vent and down a gasline, exploding metal fittings in a shower of molten metal that ignited a fire in the garage at a Medford home Aug. 2.

"In eight years, this was my first," the lead investigator for the Medford Fire Department said of the lightning-caused structure fire.

The garage fire was actually the third structure fire sparked by lightning in the Rogue Valley this summer, an unusual burst of such activity, fire and weather officials said.

At least one electrical contractor also has seen an increase in damage from lightning.

On May 31, lightning blasted a hole in the roof of a manufactured home at Meadow View Estates on Thorn Oak Drive, starting a fire that Medford firefighters quickly extinguished.

The same storm also shocked an 18-year-old McDonald's employee in Central Point when lightning hit a rooftop vent pipe at the restaurant.

In another dramatic storm on June 12, lightning struck a home at 3737 Willow Springs Road in northern Central Point, zapping electronics and starting a fire in the attic. Jackson County Fire District No. 3 doused the flames.

Other homes have been hit and fared better.

Brian Worthington, a technician at Edge Electric, of Medford, had two jobs repairing lightning damage in the wake of the storm that rattled the valley late on Aug. 1 and into the early morning hours of Aug. 2.

A mobile home in south Medford took a hit to an aluminum awning and energy arced into the wiring system, causing minor damage throughout the home, he said. A strike at a Yucca Street home dealt a fatal blow to the home's entire electrical system, wiping out the meter and more.

"Before this, I hadn't seen much lightning damage to homes," said Worthington, who has worked in the Rogue Valley for six years.

"We can go years where we don't have strikes in the valley," said Rick Holtz, meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Medford.

"This year we have a temporary pattern that opens us up to it."

The upper level wind flow that pushes thunderstorms up over the center of the Rogue Valley is "not rare, but not common" either, Holtz said.

Summer storms usually build up over the mountains that surround the valley and can hammer the ridge tops with strikes, often sparking a flurry of forest fires.

"The storms are typically to either side of us," Jackson County Fire District No. 3 Deputy Fire Marshal Don Hickman said. "Unless something comes right up the middle, we're usually OK."

He said he couldn't remember many strikes in recent years in District 3, which covers much of the north-central portion of the county.

Ashland Fire Department Capt. Bob Cockell said damage to trees and utility poles is more common than a lightning strike to a house.

"It's been a few years since we had big storms like we are seeing this year," he said, adding that Ashland hasn't had any reports of buildings struck this summer.

Cockell noted, however, that antennae, vents and other rooftop features might get struck more often than people realize.

Both he and Holtz said lightning can find a safe path to the ground sometimes without people even knowing it has passed.

A lightning rod or arrester can ensure that happens, but they aren't common in Southern Oregon, Worthington said.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.com.

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