Lightning struck house

We got a call from a customer about a lightning strike in the middle of the night that left their house smelling like smoke and destroyed their computer and router. We got there immediately and started troubleshooting.

We quickly found lots of issues. They had breakers that weren't resetting properly, a circuit showing power on ground that wasn't tripping the breaker, a doorbell button blown completely off, and several lights and receptacles not working.

We replaced the breakers with afci and gfci breakers and installed a new surge protector for the whole house.

The breaker panel with the new afci and gfci breakers, and the new surge protector.

We found that the circuit that had the doorbell and the master bedroom on it was showing power on the ground wires. After some troubleshooting we figured out that the old armored cable insulation was crumbling apart, allowing it to short to the metal armor, which put power to the metal boxes and ground wires on the receptacles. In a properly grounded and bonded system this would create a short circuit and trip the breaker. Unfortunately, the ground wire on one of the metal boxes wasn't attached properly, or securely. This meant that the circuit back to the ground bar in the breaker panel wasn't complete. In other words, there was 120 volts just sitting on the metal components (armor, boxes, and ground wires) that could've shocked or electrocuted someone if they touched it. We replaced all of the old cabling with new NM cable, properly grounded the metal boxes, and replaced the receptacle boxes with plastic ones.

Some of the questionable wiring.

The old armored cable with crumbling insulation.

Here you can see the insulation cracked at the armor. There was no protection from the sharp edge of the metal cladding.

This is the ground wire that wasn't secured, so the breaker never tripped. This connector wasn't secured to the box, and this is not the proper way to attach the ground wire to the box.

The replaced cabling and light fixture we installed.

We also replaced their doorbell transformer and button, some lightbulbs, and upgraded some receptacles from 2 prong to 3 prong and grounded them, just to make it a little safer. As always, we appreciate this customer putting their trust in us. Finally, here's a picture of the damage the lightning did when it blew out the aluminum trim by their front door. These folks were very lucky, and we're glad everyone is ok.

If you look close, you can see the burnt wood around on of the nails.