Lightening protection on lighting poles.

[Bigdogclancy]

do anyof you have any case studies or experiences in lightening strikes causing injury or fatality to passers-by around lighting polls. Either steel or concrete poles. I am hoping some of you guys in the SE part of the country might have some first hand knowledge of happenings like this. I am trying to gather some information that would lead me to believe pro or con of the better type of pole for managing lighteining strikes. The steel pole offers lots of surface area to allow the travel of the current without lots of natural impedance from a high-frequency lighteining strike. I believe a properly grounded pole should not be a problem short of somebody leaning against it during a lighteining storm. And you can't account for that much stupidity. A concrete pole needs to either use a connection to its rebar cage or utilize a full length grounding cable. the rebar cage should work as well as the girder framework in a highrise building as far as conduction and dissipation of the current generation from lightening. But if the pole is damp and someone is leaning against it I would imagine that it could be jsut as conductive becausee of the porosity inherent to the concrete. Anyway just a couple of my thoughts. if anyone has anything to chime in with i sure would like to hear from you and discuss this topoic futher. thanks

 

[bphgravity]

There are plenty of websites and organizations that offer data and research on lightning injuries and fatalities. I suggest you start there. Also consider the wide range of Lightning Protection System Standards and Codes such as the NFPA 780 and the IEC 62305.

Lightning protection for persons comes from education and public awarness for safety during storms, not building better light poles...

http://www.lightningsafety.com/

http://www.lightning.org/?page=home

http://www.lightning-protection-institute.com/fact-fallacy.htm

 

[mdshunk]

I've got a pretty good picture someplace on my computer of an I-Line breaker that exploded to bits when a 20' Valmont steel parking lot light pole got struck by lightning on one of my jobs several years back. Let me see if I can dig it up.

 

[George Stolz]

But if the pole is damp and someone is leaning against it I would imagine that it could be jsut as conductive becausee of the porosity inherent to the concrete.

If the person is standing within 20 feet of a lightning strike, they're prone to get directly hit or hurt/killed by flashover. Any contact with a pole at that moment in time would play little role in survival odds, IMO.

Google has some good links to some survivor stories, if you're interested.

 

[Bigdogclancy]

thanks for all the comments

thanks for all the comments

I appreciate your comments and help guys. Thanks very much. Gave me some extra leads. just hoping maybe to get some comments from the severe weather alleys of the country. One of the biggest areas being in Florida for lightening strikes. Thanks again.

 

[muskiedog]

Pole strikes

Pole strikes

I had lightning hit our poles twice. blow the breakers right out of the box inside of the building over 200 feet away. Electrified the cieling grid enough to cause distortions on computer screens. Workers ataed that when it hit you could actually see the cieling grid arcing.Ended up place a rod at every light pole. Still got hit on a roof top unit. Lightning will do what it wants.