Three Safety Harbor structures are hit by strikes on Monday, including a $1.3-million house, which suffered at least $250,000 in damage.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published July 16, 2003
SAFETY HARBOR - The thunderstorms that chugged over Safety Harbor on Monday unleashed more than 10 lightning strikes per minute.
Charged with about 300,000 volts each, two of the bolts hit homes and sparked fires in the ceilings. One of the houses, a $1.3-million home just off Enterprise Road, suffered at least $250,000 in damage, the homeowners estimate.
The 8,000-square-foot house on Signature Terrace was the dream home of David and Michelle Coia, who spent years planning it and 18 months building it before moving in two years ago.
Now the couple and their four children will have to stay at their beach condo for three months while the home is fixed.
"The bottom line is we are so fortunate," Michelle Coia, 39, said. "There are so many more families that have this happen to them and it's disastrous."
Still, the damage was extensive and painful to see.
"I think the biggest thing is we took a lot of time and care in designing it and building it to be exactly how we wanted it and we were so anxious to move in," Mrs. Coia, a freelance writer, said Tuesday. "And now you just wonder if it will ever be the same. And I'll always be a little more nervous about lightning."
Indeed, lightning was cracking over Safety Harbor at a rate of more than 300 bolts per half-hour Monday, said Frank Alsheimer, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Ruskin.
That's not uncommon in Florida in July. In fact, Alsheimer said at least four other storms of similar strength marched across west-central Florida Monday. A couple more were rocking the state Tuesday.
"Routinely, when we have storms that put out such extreme amounts of lightning, we will get lightning strikes to structures, trees and, unfortunately, sometimes people," he said.
Three bolts hit structures in the Safety Harbor area Monday. Besides the Coia home, another house on Bay Hills Boulevard was struck by lightning, igniting a blaze in the attic.
Cypress Meadows Community Church on McMullen-Booth Road also was struck by lightning, causing the power box to catch fire. The blaze was contained to the box, said David Pachecio Jr., a fire investigator with the Safety Harbor Fire Department.
The Coia home was struck about 9 p.m. The couple was out for a dinner. A babysitter was at the home with their 11-year-old son, his friend and the couple's niece. They were watching a movie when a bolt shook the house. The power went off.
Soon, they smelled smoke. At about the time they were calling for help, the alarm summoned authorities. Everyone got out safely.
By the time firefighters arrived, flames had pushed through the light fixtures and were rolling in an area near the front entrance.
Fire officials sounded a second alarm, pulling in 19 units and about 50 firefighters from six departments. With lightning bolts streaking all around them, firefighters fought down the flames. They could not, however, go on the roof to ventilate it because of the lightning danger.
Still, firefighters were able to pin the fire down and prevent it from spreading much farther. It was out within 20 minutes.
Even with the quick put-out, smoke fanned through much of the home. The damage was extensive, Mrs. Coia said.
She and her husband, a developer, thought they had a lightning rod installed when they built the home, but couldn't confirm that Tuesday. Whether they did or didn't, they plan on having one installed.
"It will be well worth it," Mrs. Coia said.
Less than 2 percent of homes in the area have lightning rods on their roofs, and many of them are big houses on the water, said Charlie Wilson of Lightning Specialists Inc. in Palm Harbor.
His company has installed lightning rods on several local commercial buildings, including the public access building at MacDill Air Force Base and Skycrest Christian School.
Though the chances of lightning striking a home are remote, Wilson said homeowners should consider getting lightning rods installed. The devices essentially catch lightning strikes and direct the electricity into the ground, away from the home.
He said installing a system on a 2,500-square-foot home could cost about $2,000.
"Every homeowner should consider it because there's no way to determine when or where it will strike," he said. "And when it does strike, it can cause severe damage."
Wilson said many homeowners who want a system installed have been struck before.
"Once you've been struck, you never forget it," he said. "It's scary."
