Lightening Strike on pool

[polypools]

Customer has a 16x32, 6'deep, salt pool - steel walls, fiberglass steps. Hayward Super Pump and SD40 Sand filter.

On Saturday, customer checked pool, everything fine. Saturday night, strong thunder/lightening storms in area. Sunday morning, customer went out to clean pool and found black "stains" on light, returns, skimmer, main drain and step jets. Appearance resembles smoke/charred marks from fire (like when a plug sparks in an electrical outlet).

Has anyone experienced this kind of reaction after a storm? Is it possible that lightening struck the pool and caused "fire" to come through pipes? Breaker not tripped. Pump and salt system working. GFCI was replaced since today, but not sure if it worked properly before storm.

[attachment=1:d4dzmlqv]burn fitting 3b.jpg[/attachment:d4dzmlqv]

[attachment=0:d4dzmlqv]burn return 2b.jpg[/attachment:d4dzmlqv]

 

[JohnT]

Wow! Wish I had some advice, but I've never seen anything like it.

 

[Bama Rambler]

While it's not very likely, lightning can do some strange things. It's more likely that some type of smoke or dust got deposited in it by the wind and adhered to the returns where it exited.

 

[onBalance]

I don't know if this has anything to do with the staining, but Electrolysis can cause copper staining. Electrical currents can cause copper to jump off of copper piping and into the water. Fittings around the pool can have an opposite electrical charge which can the attrack the dissolved copper which attaches to the fittings. Just a thought. But those pictures are fascinating.

 

[cramar]

I dunno, seems like a direct lighting hit would be unmistakable with quite noticeable damage. Also seems like if it was a close hit that the pool would have enough attraction to pull it in and be a direct hit.
:?:

 

[techguy]

Is that step jet burnt and misshapen? Is to the comment about the copper, it made me wonder is the metal in the screws are what off gassed metal and made the burn marks? I assume the steel wall of the pool would have distributed the charge around the entire pool to all of the screws via the threads. Now that type that? Is the black burn plastic from the backside of those fittings or the liner around the screw threads??

 

[swimcmp]

Most likely not a direct strike but a very near one. IMO that is the only thing that is going to cause the discolorations that you have found.

 

[UnderWaterVanya]

Can you pull a fitting and see what the back of it looks like?