Most people go through their entire lives without ever experiencing an encounter with lightning inside their own home. However, one Texas teenager found himself in that rare situation while playing video games at home.
Thirteen-year-old Vlad Skuridin was playing video games when lightning struck his house. The charge traveled through the home’s wiring, reached his metal desk, and ended up reaching his abdomen. The shock sent him jumping out of his seat and screaming, and in the moment, he genuinely feared he might not survive. His father immediately called 911, and paramedics who arrived on the scene evaluated him and determined that he didn’t need further hospital treatment.
Vlad was lucky enough to escape from any kind of physical harm, but his house wasn’t so lucky. The lightning surge that ran through the wiring was powerful enough to spark a fire in the roof area and blow a hole in the wall.
The house didn’t receive any kind of structural damage but left a lasting impression on Vlad, who admitted afterward that he still feels scared and has come to a realization that “it can end whenever.”
Several Twitch streamers have experienced electrical sparks that were caught on camera, occasionally accompanied by glitchy audio and visual distortion as the surge hit their equipment. Most of these incidents amounted to little more than a scare, but not always. However, there have been cases where streamers suffered from actual burns, including one instance where a surge traveled through a pair of wired earbuds and shocked the user through their ears. Gaming controllers, too, have been fried or destroyed outright in similar incidents.
So while playing with a controller during a thunderstorm might feel harmless, it’s worth taking a few precautions when severe weather is out there.
Consumer Reports states that battery-powered and wireless devices such as phones, laptops, and handhelds are generally safe to use during a storm as long as they aren’t plugged into a wall outlet.
On the other hand, wired devices carry real risk, and surge protectors won’t do much to guard against a direct lightning strike. The safest bet is to unplug vulnerable electronics entirely if a storm is out there and avoid running water or using corded devices until it passes.
