Lightning strike blows up toilet in Florida
The strike likely ignited methane gas in the septic tank.
This surely isn't something you think of when a particularly wicked thunderstorm crosses your house.
Florida-based plumbing company A-1 Affordable Plumbing shared a post on its Facebook page over the weekend, depicting damage to a toilet that happened during one such thunderstorm in Port Charlotte. Their assessment was that lightning struck the home's septic tank, igniting the methane gas that had built up inside.
"The toilet exploded in [the] homeowner's master bathroom, sending porcelain airborne like a missile (the porcelain penetrated into wall)," the post read. "Most likely all sewer piping will need to be replaced and septic tank. Luckily no one was hurt!"
Image credit: A-1 Affordable Plumbing
MaryLou Ward, who owns the property with her husband, told broadcaster WTHR she heard 'the loudest noise' she ever heard when the strike happened on Sunday morning.
"We got out of bed and came over here, and the toilet was laying on the floor," Ward said.
Plumber Jordan Hagadorn, who owns the company that posted the pictures of the damage, told USA Today he'd never seen anything like this, adding the tank's lid was only an inch underground, possibly making it more vulnerable to the lightning strike.
"This might even bring out new laws and regulations for septic tanks," Hagadorn told the newspaper.
Ward, meanwhile, says she'll be much more cautious during a thunderstorm.
"I'm not taken any showers and not going to the bathroom," she said. "Not when it's thunderstorming and down here, that's a lot."
