Residential Lightning Fires in the USA: An Overview

Lightning ignites some 6000 fires each year in residences in the U.S., where very few are equipped with a lightning protection system. Many of these fires cause serious damage to or destruction of the structure and cause both injury and loss of life. Although the incidence of residential fires in the U.S. from all other causes has fallen dramatically over the past 30 years, lightning fires have increased in number. This paper presents an overview of the incidence of residential lightning fires in the U.S. from published sources of fire data and from the author's review of insurance claims. The likely causes of residential lightning fires are briefly discussed. It is concluded that these fires occur both from direct lightning strikes and from nearby indirect strikes. It is further suggested that lightning overvoltage damage to electrical power systems is a major cause of residential fires.