Man stuck by lighting filling a propane tank in a RV Park.

Maybe it should be noted that one of the safest places to be during lightning strikes is in a car with a metal roof. An RV with a metal roof or aluminum frame would probably also be safe. I am told this is due to something called The Faraday Effect. Here is a link with a better explanation.

Am I safe from lightning in my RV?

JimK-NY wrote:
Filling the propane tank had no bearing on this. Plenty of people get hit by lightening while taking shelter under a tree. People had also died from being hit by chards of wood from a tree hit by lightening. It is not safe to take shelter under a tree during a lightening storm.

Should just be quite, I guess.....but -

I'm not quiet sure if "lightening" is the same as "lightning"??

Or if "chards" are "shards"?

However - if you are struck by lightning, I'm quite sure it may be lightening your load - in one way or another...:W

~

The lightning struck a large tree just behind the campsite where the motorhome was parked that he was filling with propane. I don't think the propane filling activity had anything to do with it.

"one more incident than I've heard of involving traveling while your fridge is running on propane."

WTP, ice would be...soft...for cocktail hour if'n I didn't run with propane on. Horrors!

Well, this is the first incident I've heard of where something bad happened involving the combination of a propane tank and lightning...which is exactly one more incident than I've heard of involving traveling while your fridge is running on propane.

Ah, Billy, at least you understood my post.

First.. one glaring error in all this. Lightning does not, far as I know strike the ground.. You see the earth is "Negative ground" and current flows from Negative to Positive, so lightning strikes the SKY from the ground.

But,, This I will say: Often if you are in an area that is about to enjoy a "Strike" you will have warning.. now the lesser animals know about that warning adn get the blazes out of the area (usually) I've had training so in THEORY know to take steps to protect myself.. Clearly the pumper did not.

Every spring, just before Tornado season NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency) Conducts WEATHER SPOTTER classes all over the place. Often free, and often hosted by local Ham Radio clubs... Even if you are NOT a ham, and do not plan on becoming a weather spotter.. I highly suggest these classes.

How important are weather spotters (Should you so decide) When I was in school (1960's)_ a killer tornado hit just south of where i lived.. We had smaller tornados closer to home (As in within 3 miles)... These storms hit just AFTER the weather service signaled "All clear".

Since the Weather Spotter service has been in place we have had many storms as bad or even worse than those storms (it was a group of tornadoes) Proerty damage has been as high or higher.. BUT loss of life .. Far far lower.

In one case.. I saw video of a tornado which hit a factory in OHIO. they had a Weather alert radio so when the alarm went off, they shut down and headed for the storm celler.. When the all-clear sounded they came back up and found NOTHING.

NO factory
No machines
NO cars (Just one big block chevy engine)
NOTHING. it has all been wiped out

Total injured or killed: ZERO

KrowNB wrote:

Lwiddis wrote:
This is why I don't fill propane tanks in RV parks! Or in Canada!

What's Canada have to do with it? No lightning in the US? Safety regs for propane are about the same both sides of the border.

Me thinks it was just a little tongue in cheek humor. Had it been about a car accident involving a Cadillac, he could have said the same about it.

How did propane transfer trigger a lightning strike? Too bad the mythbusters disbanded.

Lwiddis wrote:
This is why I don't fill propane tanks in RV parks! Or in Canada!

What's Canada have to do with it? No lightning in the US? Safety regs for propane are about the same both sides of the border.