Originally posted by: Lola
A few years ago, lightening hit our house. It was the scariest sound. It hit the stack on the roof connected to the bathroom. The fire department was called because I could smell burning wiring.
During my 30 years of operating cranes, I've had the boom struck by lightning twice, both while working in the mountains, and both from surprise storms that popped over the top of the mountain...and we had no advance warning that it was coming.
That's some scary shit...fortunately, in both cases, the hook was empty and on one standing close to the crane.
I could watch the "ball of fire" shoot down the wire rope to the crane where it passed into the ground through the outriggers.
Both instances took the crane out of service for several days while it was inspected, the wire rope replaced due to burned spots, and a few bearings replaced where the electricity arced in them.
It was deafeningly loud when it happened.