Milenko Kindl Cvrcko aalal
Nenad Milicevic
Chris Bergin and his brother, Ben, were jamming along to "Message in a
Bottle" on the videogame Guitar Hero 2 during a storm in June when a
bright light flashed and a thunderclap shook their house in Wilton,
Conn.
The lightning strike nearby triggered a power surge that snaked
through the house's electrical system to Mr. Bergin's PlayStation 2
then traveled through the wiring to the plastic guitar controller
pressed up against his stomach.
"I just remember falling to the ground and looking at my brother
'cause he was on the ground, too," says the 15-year-old Mr. Bergin.
The two brothers weren't hurt, but their PlayStation was fried, along
with their laptop computer, television set, cable and phone wiring and
ceiling fan.
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Lightning safety experts, endorsing common sense, have long advised
that indoors is the safest place to be during an electrical storm. The
National Weather Service recently adopted the slogan, "When thunder
roars, go indoors."
But the spread of high-tech devices, including laptops and videogames,
means there are new ways in which people can suffer injuries or
property losses, even in the relative safety of their homes. A
division of Sony Corp., Sony Computer Entertainment America, the maker
of PlayStation products, says it hadn't heard of incidents like this
and says its devices come with safety instructions about lightning.
Activision Inc., which makes the Guitar Hero game, advocates staying
off electronics during storms.
Mark Earley, chief electrical engineer at the National Fire Protection
Association, says the new lightning safety slogan should be modified
slightly: "When thunder roars, stay indoors -- and read a book."