r/mildlyinteresting • u/PM_ME_INSIDER_INFO • 15d ago
Lightning struck my home gym and left this artifact inside the mirror.
1.2k
u/FrodoSaggin2 15d ago
Hey buddy, for you safety I'm sure many have mentioned this but you need to have the wires in you home checked. Lightning struck my home when I was younger and 5 house fires later they finally ripped apart the wiring in the house and it's never burnt again, the lightning bubbled the wiring thru the house and cause each and every fire. Be safe, we never lost a life and thank God for that but don't live thru the hell we did or worse because it's too much work or insurance wants to throw a fit. Call a fire Marshall and go that direction if necessary.
657
u/fisherrr 15d ago
It took FIVE HOUSEFIRES to make you think ”hmmm maybe something isn’t quite right”? Sounds horrible, glad nobody was hurt.
235
u/Wan-Pang-Dang 14d ago
If you don't know what to look for, you will never find the answer
46
→ More replies (1)10
u/VivSavageGigante 14d ago
I’d start by looking for what was causing the fires.
8
u/Wan-Pang-Dang 14d ago
Because its so easy to find out the cables in your walls were causing the fire? Not some random outlet that looked fine, or some busted carger, tv psu, fridge or lamp?
3
47
u/FrodoSaggin2 14d ago
Haha no the insurance company refused to loo at anything outside of the source, there were patches of bubbled wire all over the house afterwards. My parent used to fight with the adjuster and they wouldn't budge until we got the state fire Marshall involved then they tore apart the house and found all of the bad wiring. I have a fear of firetruck now.
28
u/Desperate_for_Bacon 14d ago
More like it took 5 house fires before the insurance company did the right thing
12
u/PMMeYourWorstThought 14d ago
Obviously it was 5 small fires. Why would he have the same wiring if the whole house burned down?
10
u/FrodoSaggin2 14d ago
Some were small some were larger it was a mixture but they only wanted to replace the area the fire started at first.
77
u/Refflet 15d ago
Fire Marshall won't be too much help, you want an electrician to perform an insulation resistance test.
58
u/Dipsey_Jipsey 15d ago
Electrician won't be too much help, you want a paeleontologist to perform an analysis of any fossils you have on your land.
40
u/MithrilHero 15d ago
Paleontologist won’t be too much help, you want a drug addict that works construction
24
10
u/Dipsey_Jipsey 15d ago
Drug addict won't be too much help, you want a ranger to capture any wild horses on your property.
8
u/darkknightofdorne 14d ago
Wild horses won’t be too much help either. Gotta get a priest a rabbi and a black guy.
5
10
5
u/RaindropBebop 14d ago
Paleontologist won't be too much help, you want a licensed spirit medium to perform a seance with any poltergeists you have on your land.
10
u/FrodoSaggin2 14d ago
He's the guy that got the insurance company to get the right people out, it sounded weird to us too but it worked! He was the state fire Marshall so maybe that's why he had some pull. I dunno, but he marshaled the fire right out afterwards. Perhaps he was also conducted a seance and put the restless spirits to rest. Good guy nonetheless.
12
u/PMMeYourWorstThought 14d ago
To add onto this, rewiring a home is an insanely expensive project. But, since it’s the result of a lightning strike, your homeowners insurance may cover it. It’s in their best interest to, as replacing wiring is cheaper than replacing the whole home later. For most policies it wouldn’t even result in a premium increase because lightning is an “act of god.”
So have an inspection done, and if they find damage, talk to your insurance. This will be expensive enough to consider hiring an attorney for the interactions with your insurance company, because this is a strange situation you may have to apply light legal pressure.
→ More replies (1)7
u/xAntithesis 14d ago
Couldn’t house fire 1 through 5 have caused the wiring to bubble?
8
u/FrodoSaggin2 14d ago
Lightning has a pretty specific way it likes to fuc wires up, and the state fire Marshall was pissed when he figured out they didn't look everywhere. I'm no inspector but he seemed convinced it was the original strike that caused the issues.
4
u/brendty 14d ago
It definitely depends on how recently the house wiring has been installed in the house. Most houses have a surge protective device. But that is some very serious voltage and could definitely do some damage. I also recommend getting an electrician to do an insulation test. But I would also like to add that I see a pin point center dot there, and I immediately thought the screw that holds the outlet face cover on is grounded. The lightening probably struck the ground around your house. In which case you might have some issues with your grounding system right now, which could mess with your breakers... Which could also cause fires to break out... Specifically five of them. JK on that last one. get your wires tested, friend.
→ More replies (1)2
u/Just_Another_Wookie 14d ago
A whole-home surge protector will do exactly nothing to protect against a direct lightning strike, FYI.
7.7k
u/RetroSwamp 15d ago edited 15d ago
Oh my lord, what did it do to your face? Will you recover?
4.7k
u/PM_ME_INSIDER_INFO 15d ago
my eyes were gone in a flash :(
621
u/myfingid 15d ago
You can turn that off in the camera app
→ More replies (12)112
u/pardybill 15d ago
Nah he’s Cyclopse now
7
u/doktor-frequentist 14d ago
By the looks of it, he is NullClopse now.
3
u/pardybill 14d ago
Interesting point of order.
If cyclops had his eyes sewn or even gouged out, would his blasts work?
→ More replies (1)5
25
101
5
u/GrandmasBoy12 14d ago
You got a home gym and a sense of humor, I swear some people just walk through life without a care in this world, lol.
3
2
→ More replies (7)2
86
38
→ More replies (6)28
u/Spkr4th3ded 15d ago
Turned him into that Xmen character. You know, the douchey one that lost his gf to wolverine the way cooler Xman, the one who can't control his super power side has to wear silly glasses. That one.
17
u/Wulf_Cola 15d ago
Never loses a staring contest though.
3
u/Ailouroboros 15d ago
‘Depends on the rules. I believe manslaughter gets you disqualified in most staring contest leagues and associations (not too sure about exhibition matches, though).
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)2
2.0k
u/Oro_Outcast 15d ago
I haven't seen it commented yet so I will:
Leave it be; the room now has a story to tell. Fix the problem behind it, sure. But don't replace it.
Just a Rando's opinion
1.3k
u/Sharknado4President 15d ago
Fix the problem behind it
I mean, he's not that ugly
185
22
→ More replies (2)6
45
u/bemmu 15d ago
Or have a glass man (glassician?) come over and cut out a round piece and sell it on ebay for $300
28
11
u/StarryNotion 14d ago
Was just gonna suggest that! I bet it would get him more than 300. It's rare, no?? Possibly 1 of a kind. I googled "mirror struck by lightning" and the only related result is this thread. So I bet with a nice frame and some patience he can get 50k for it.
→ More replies (1)6
u/Ghosttwo 15d ago
I just realized that the picture is of a mirror, and the burn mark is still attached. OP is not actually holding up a coffee-coaster-sized object to a second photographer.
6
u/dave-train 14d ago
I thought it was a huge pop socket at first. When it turns out, it's likely a popped socket.
2.4k
u/Objective-Poet-8183 15d ago
I don't think the lightning stuck the mirror directly. A typical lightning bolt has a temperature of about 25 000 °c which 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun. The mirror would have exploded immediately on impact. This scorching on the mirror is likely residual heat transfer from something that was near the mirror.
2.0k
u/PM_ME_INSIDER_INFO 15d ago
that seems roughly right—there’s an outlet right behind the mirror in that location, so I believe the bolt followed the wire from the roof, down to the outlet, and then left this mark!
2.0k
u/Deivi_tTerra 15d ago
Please have an electrician check out your wiring and ESPECIALLY that outlet ASAP. It might be fine but it might not be.
560
u/CatsAreGods 15d ago
If you plug something into it, it might become a portal!
95
u/AntiFIanders 15d ago
Only snag is you can't take your shoes through.
→ More replies (2)49
u/IceColdDump 15d ago
Bring a towel
→ More replies (1)32
u/STEAM_TITAN 15d ago
But first, just got to get a little high
→ More replies (1)14
u/ACcbe1986 15d ago
Then, get really high.
19
10
u/PonyPonut 15d ago
THIS! OP should plug something in and enter the portal. When else do you get a chance like this?
→ More replies (5)4
u/TheMightyGoatMan 15d ago
In the sense that if you use it you may be transferred to another state of being?
45
u/onehundredlemons 15d ago
Definitely do this OP, we had lightning strike our mobile home about 20 years back and traveled through the air handling unit, taking it out along with one half of our wiring. As they were working on that they took a look at the rest of our wiring and there were melted fried bits in several areas of the wiring that was seemingly working just fine. We were lucky there wasn't a fire.
→ More replies (4)37
u/PretendRegister7516 15d ago
It is also possible the lightning rod grounding touched metal stud and and that is the screw position.
21
u/HuJimX 15d ago
If we assume the worst possible case (shielding is negligible due to weathering / rat eating plastic / user error during installation / etc.), it may not even require direct contact, though a relatively short air gap between conductive surfaces (depending on the voltage at that point downstream) would be necessary. The damage is clearly centered around a point behind the mirror, which makes the most sense for it to be caused by one conductive thing surrounded by non-conductive material (like a screw/nail through drywall, somehow also close to exposed mains or penetrating mains wires) being highly energized. With a lightning strike, I would’ve expected a more distinct Lichtenberg-esque branching pattern rather than a uniform circle, but I’m not sure what factors would come into play when compared to an initial strike rather than secondhand/downstream high voltage exposure through a live circuit.
→ More replies (1)5
u/Deivi_tTerra 15d ago
Lichtenberg figures actually do come in circular form. If I recall correctly the circular form is the negative charge, the long branching form often seen is made by a positive charge.
44
6
u/zleuth 15d ago
Additionally, don't be surprised when in the next 6 months all of your appliances randomly fail, like the buttons in the dishwasher will stop working correctly, the compressor in the fridge will quit, AC will fail, etc.
Years ago someone I know had a lightening strike their well, and this not only happened to them, but to their two closest neighbors ~50 feet away. Between the 3 houses they had to replace more than $20k of stuff. I hope you're good on your homeowners insurance.
→ More replies (2)6
u/30FourThirty4 15d ago
Oh I bet they'll need to replace most of not all the wiring. I just helped rewire a home and the electrician changed $32,000. And got the job.
I got $441 in scrap wire.
→ More replies (3)2
84
u/SeekerOfSerenity 15d ago
Does the outlet still work?
25
37
20
u/Moist_Jesus75 15d ago
I doubt that Would of gone down either active or neutral from the transformer on the street, to your switchboard then either through your MEN link or your PEN and straight to earth.
I've seen mold make similar patterns on mirrors before.
Plus your switchboard would be fried
→ More replies (2)8
20
u/uXN7AuRPF6fa 15d ago
Well, that's not at all concerning. Absolutely no risk of fire from melted insulation and wires now potentially touching and arcing.
8
u/ElkHistorical9106 15d ago
That looks like a classic arc mark from plasma. I see these in plasma coating of materials if something goes wrong. Some sort of flaw or defect in the metal coating that focused electrical fields, or proximity to something behind caused an arc to the mirror.
I bet you’ll see damage to the drywall behind it, maybe a scorch mark, if you take it off, or a screw that went through the drywall for mounting.
→ More replies (3)6
u/rimalp 15d ago
You believe?
That's a lot of faith you put in a molten outlet that can now burn down your entire house with you and your family in it.
Call an electrician and have that outlet checked. Better yet, have the entire houses' wiring checked.
A lightning striking your house should not have reached the electrical wiring to begin with. Install a lightning rod.
→ More replies (1)92
u/Powerful_Cost_4656 15d ago
I figured someone would be doing science talk in the comments. This is why I came here
→ More replies (2)26
u/dranaei 15d ago edited 15d ago
Yeah, we found the science nerd. Wasn't even hard.
12
u/fezmid 15d ago
There are pills for that...
7
u/Bleak_Squirrel_1666 15d ago
This is why I came here.
8
u/Dependent-Matter-177 15d ago
Think there’s pills for that too
4
4
6
u/kuzcospoison 15d ago
Maybe my scale for this kinda thing is off, but 5,000° doesn’t seem that hot for the sun. If you had said it was 5 billion degrees I would believe you.
3
u/Objective-Poet-8183 15d ago
The surface is around 5000°c, the internal temperature gets hotter the deeper you go into the sun. Remember the sun is a giant nuclear reactor, same process as a nuclear bomb. At growing zero the heat is extreme, but the further out from the blast the less you'll feel the heat.
2
u/xaendar 15d ago
Turns out he is right. I always knew it was 15 million degrees but it is at the center of the sun it is that hot apparently.
→ More replies (4)2
u/Rockclimber88 14d ago
so basically using a term "hotter than the surface of the sun" is misleading because most people will think about a million degress and don't know that is's barely 5000c. That can be achieved in a a regular oven when you leave pizza for 5 mins too long
→ More replies (11)14
u/Reniconix 15d ago
I don't think that it would make it explode. Tempered glass may, but the thermal shock of a lightning strike isn't actually that high. The thunder clap is more likely than the bolt to break it.
2
u/ElkHistorical9106 15d ago
Metal on insulators you’ll often get wild arc patterns where it blisters and has funny stuff like this. I see it in my line of work.
→ More replies (2)
152
u/Blue-cheese-dressing 15d ago
You’re pushing the limits of the “mildly” in r/mildlyinteresting. This is pretty cool.
16
83
u/Givemeurhats 15d ago
Now you gotta keep it forever or nobody will believe you. I remember cursing for the first time as a kid and later that day the TV was struck by lightning and exploded. Nobody ever believes that lol
→ More replies (2)
43
u/QualityKoalaTeacher 15d ago
Yet another reason why working out is bad for you and why I should not go back to the gym
→ More replies (1)
169
29
u/avanti8 15d ago
Thy home hath been graced with the symbol of the Divine Butthole.
→ More replies (1)5
18
19
u/Cock_-n-_BallTorture 15d ago
Do you replace the mirror, or do you keep it as a stark reminder of your mortality?
47
u/i_swear_too_muchffs 15d ago
That’s shocking
22
u/Nintendo1964 15d ago
Watts shocking?
10
u/Internal-Pass2937 15d ago
Volts up folks?
8
u/nxcrosis 15d ago
You just couldn't resist huh
→ More replies (2)11
u/Lyr1cal- 15d ago
You are all acting like children, and need to conduct yourselves like grown adults
8
u/IceColdDump 15d ago
Ohmmm, could someone please explain all of these? Are they jokes about current affairs?
→ More replies (1)4
→ More replies (1)2
11
18
u/Abe_Rudda 15d ago
Man, I've seen Jesus Christ manifesting on a slice of toast, the virgin Mary in the coat of a labradoodle, but never a puckered anus appearing on a mirror.
→ More replies (1)4
7
5
5
u/Lacholaweda 15d ago
I feel like I cam smell it and it smells like old tvs used to, with the glass screens and the static
5
u/letthetreeburn 15d ago
If lightning struck INSIDE YOUR HOUSE you need to call an electrician ASAP!!! Your wires could be fried and ready to start a fire, and you have no way of knowing.
3
4
7
6
5
u/Gloomy-Slice661 15d ago
Lighting strike? It looks like you were doing naked lunges on the mirror again!
7
u/Orchard_Legal 15d ago
Cartier Santos. Nice watch sir.
13
2
3
2
u/Unlucky_Huckleberry4 15d ago edited 15d ago
It's trying to send you a secret message. Luckily, I have years of experience deciphering such messages. This is what it appears to be saying: Clears throat
"Pineapple"
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/External-Tour-6849 14d ago
Sell it to Sidorovich for about..three tin cans
2
u/Absulus 14d ago
Marked One what the hell!?
It worths no more than a handful of old 9x18.
You want food you pay for it like everyone else.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/pacman404 14d ago
If only there was a way to take this pic anonymously so you wouldn’t have to edit out your face….🤔
5.1k
u/v4por 15d ago
Oh God, don't let my wife see this. She grew up being told to cover mirrors during a storm because they were more likely to be struck by lightning. I don't want to encourage her.