A Florida couple received quite the shock on Sunday morning when a bolt of lightning struck their septic tank and triggered a blast that caused their toilet to explode.
Marylou Ward and her husband were lying in bed at their Port Charlotte home on Sunday night, when, under the clapping of thunder, they heard a loud ‘boom’ ring out in their bathroom.
‘It was the loudest noise I’ve ever heard,’ Ward recalled to WFLA. ‘We got out of bed and…the toilet was laying on the floor’.
When Ward stepped into her bathroom she found her toilet had shattered into hundreds of pieces.
Marylou Ward and her husband were lying in bed at their Port Charlotte home on Sunday night, when, under the clapping of thunder, they heard a loud ‘boom’ ring out in their bathroom
When Ward stepped into her bathroom she found her toilet had shattered into hundreds of pieces on the floor
The couple said they also smelled smoke and saw their septic tank steaming in the garden.
Ward called local firm A-1 Affordable Plumbing to help clear up the decimated bathroom.
The company said lightning had struck close to the home’s septic tank, which ignited a build-up of methane gas in the pipes – caused by decades of fecal matter passing through – and prompted the toilet to blow.
They noted that such incidents are very rare but Ward says she and her husband feel lucky to have escaped unscathed.
‘I’m just glad none of us were on the toilet,’ she told WINK News. ‘That’s the main thing.’
The company said lightning had struck close to the home’s septic tank, which ignited a build-up of methane gas in the pipes – caused by decades of fecal matter passing through – and prompted the toilet to blow
The couple said they also smelled smoke and saw their septic tank steaming in the garden (pictured: the scene of impact where the lightning struck)
In addition to her busted bathroom, the storm also wrecked a series of Ward’s pipes, smashed a window in the couple’s bedroom, and destroyed a series of yard decorations.
‘The toilet exploded in homeowners’ master bathroom sending porcelain airborne like a missile (the porcelain penetrated into wall). Most likely all sewer piping will need to be replaced and septic tank,’ an A-1 plumber wrote on Facebook. ‘Luckily no one was hurt! Scheduling a camera inspection this week to see how much sanitary pipe needs to be replaced!!’
The couple’s next door neighbor, Charles Allen, say he’s used the Ward family’s story to warn his children to be careful of using the bathroom during thunderstorms.
‘I already sent a picture out to my kids and said, ‘Don’t do it!’ Here’s the proof why you shouldn’t go near the bathroom in a thunderstorm.’
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) lightning expert, John Jensenius, says that lightning can strike you if you’re on the toilet or in the shower or bath.
‘There have been documented incidents of people injured on toilets,’ Jensenius told The Charlotte Observer. ‘It [lightning] went through the pipes and through the water. If lightning strikes your home, it often finds its way into the plumbing.’
‘I’m just glad none of us were on the toilet,’ she told WINK News. ‘That’s the main thing.’ In addition to her busted bathroom, the storm also wrecked a series of Ward’s pipes, smashed a window (right) in the couple’s bedroom, and destroyed a series of yard decorations
Most strikes occur outdoors, however NOAA says that lightning can enter a building through either a direct strike, through wires or pipes which extend outside the structure, or through the ground.
Once it has entered, the lightning can travel through metal wires, the plumbing and any metal bars in the walls or flooring.
According to the National Weather Service, there have been 10 lightning related deaths in the US so far this year, with fatalities recorded in Florida, Texas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Alabama.
‘A house is a safe place to be during a thunderstorm as long as you avoid anything that conducts electricity,’ the NWS states on its website. ‘This means staying off corded phones, electrical appliances, wires, TV cables, computers, plumbing, metal doors and windows.’
‘Windows are hazardous for two reasons: wind generated during a thunderstorm can blow objects into the window, breaking it and causing glass to shatter and second, in older homes, in rare instances, lightning can come in cracks in the sides of windows.’