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Lightning is the leading cause of church fires (30 percent) in the U.S. (Insurance Information Institute).

Lightning is the most dangerous and frequently encountered weather hazard that most people experience each year (National Severe Storm Laboratory).

Lightning causes more than one billion dollars annually in structural damage to buildings in the U.S. (Underwriter's Laboratory).

Located at the top of a prominent hill in Port Washington, Wisconsin, the Friedens Evangelical Free Church has seen countless thunderstorms since its founding more than 150 years ago. The church had been struck by lightning several times over the decades, never receiving more than minor damage. On the evening of July 8, 2002, lightning struck again. "We're not positive of the time," says Senior Pastor Mark Voll. "But the hands on the old clock were stopped at 10:10 P.M."

Lightning is a powerful force—a single bolt can carry over 30 million volts of electricity. It has enough power to rip through roofs and explode walls of brick and concrete. But lightning causes the most property damage by it's ability to ignite fires.

For Friedens Evangelical Free Church, the lateness of the hour on July 2 meant no one was in the church, so there were no injuries. But there was also no one to notice the start of the fire.

Fifty-five firefighters from Port Washington and the surrounding towns battled to put the fire out. It was under control in about a half an hour, but the sanctuary was considered a total loss. Firemen had to break a number of historical stained glass windows, and the heat of the fire melted the pipes on the church's 1914 organ. Damage amounted to 1.2 million dollars.

Lightning is the visible discharge of static electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth. Scientists still don't fully understand the cause, but most believe that different kinds of ice interact in a cloud causing positive charges to move up while negative charges move down. The separation of charges eventually leads to a major electrical discharge. Buildings and lives are at risk when the discharge occurs between a cloud and the ground.

The job of a lightning protection system is to allow the electrical discharge to occur without causing damage to a building or injury to people. The system neither attracts nor repels a lightning strike—it is designed to receive the strike and route it harmlessly into the earth.

Just how vulnerable a particular structure is to lightning strikes depends on the nature of the structure relative to other structures around it, and the surrounding geography. For instance, a church on a lone hill with an upward thrusting steeple is much more of a target than the same size church in a city surrounded by 20-story buildings. Likewise, if the same church is located in a rural area and is surrounded by much higher trees, the trees will be more likely to take the bolt.

Richard Roux, senior electrical engineer at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in Quincy, Massachusetts, says lightning can strike anywhere on earth, even the North and South Poles. But in any particular geographical location in the United States, lightning storms can occur as few as five times or as many as 100 times per year. "Places like Montana, Iowa, or Idaho are not that bad," Roux says. "Much more vulnerable are the entire Gulf Coast area and Florida, as well as all the way up the East Coast to New Jersey."

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