In the summer of 2026, the Paradise and Hagen fires in Oregon's Umatilla National Forest served as a stark reminder of a reality far beyond the western United States: lightning can ignite a blaze dozens of kilometers from emergency crews and cripple essential services within hours. The fires, initially attributed to lightning strikes on July 16, then spread in dry, windy conditions. By August 20, the Hagen Fire had burned 58,153 acres and the Paradise Fire 6,129 acres, for a combined total of over 64,000 acres.
In fire-prone regions, the challenge is not simply to protect buildings. It is also essential to maintain access to water, telecommunications, electrical substations, pumping stations, and operational centers. Therefore, a strategy combining lightning protection, real-time weather alerts, monitoring, and business continuity becomes a concrete element of resilience for critical infrastructure.
Oregon: What the Umatilla fires reveal
According to OregonLive, lightning sparked the Paradise, Hagen, and Horse Ridge fires in the Umatilla National Forest on July 16, 2026. By August 20, Hagen had burned 58,153 acres and Paradise 6,129 acres. These figures illustrate how multiple, initially separate fires can significantly and sustainably mobilize local resources.
Furthermore, reports indicate that water catchment infrastructure was threatened and that evacuations were underway. Drones were also used to locate hotspots through thermal imaging. This combination—fire, difficult access, evacuations, and reliance on technical networks—is representative of the risks faced by many territories, from the mountainous regions of North America to the Mediterranean, African, and South American regions.
- Water intakes and pumping stations : a power outage or damage to an isolated site can disrupt water distribution.
- Telecommunications : relays, pylons and radio links are essential for both rescue efforts and evacuated populations.
- Energy and automation : power surges can damage control equipment even without a direct impact on the building.
- Operational access : closed roads, smoke and heat limit maintenance and inspection capacity.
The origin of a fire should not be confused with all its effects. A lightning strike can initiate combustion; subsequently, smoke, heat, and power outages create further vulnerabilities. This is why protection plans must link the site's electrical safety to its crisis management plan and recovery procedures.
What is dry lightning and why is it so dangerous?
Dry lightning is an electrical discharge produced by a thunderstorm where much of the precipitation evaporates before reaching the ground. It can therefore strike very dry vegetation without ground rain reducing the risk of ignition. In meteorology, the evaporation of precipitation below the cloud base is often called virga.
This mechanism becomes particularly concerning when multiple impacts occur over a large and difficult-to-access area. Indeed, some lightning strikes can remain undetected for hours, or even develop in areas where first responders cannot immediately reach. Aerial surveys, thermal imaging drones, and lightning detection then help to prioritize checks.
- Little rain on the ground : the humidity does not reduce the risk to plant fuels.
- Multiple impacts : a single storm event can create several areas requiring monitoring.
- Difficult to detect : a smoldering fire can be hidden by the terrain, the forest or smoke.
- Reduced window for intervention : wind, heat and limited access accelerate the deterioration of the situation.
To size an installation, the ground lightning density, Ng, remains a useful data in the risk approach ofIEC 62305.Ng does not however describe the fire risk on its own: the exposure of the site, the surrounding materials, the access routes, the availability of emergency services and the criticality of the service must also be examined.
How to protect critical infrastructure against dry lightning?
The direct response is to combine a site-specific risk analysis, coordinated external and internal protection, controlled grounding, and an operational warning capability. In other words, a single piece of equipment cannot replace either the overall design or field procedures. IEC 62305 provides an international framework for structuring this approach.
First, the risk analysis must identify the plausible consequences of an outage: loss of drinking water, disruption of communications, shutdown of a control station, or exposure of personnel. Second, it must consider ancillary buildings, electrical and data connections, tanks, fences, and equipment located outside. This expanded perimeter avoids securing the technical room while leaving a critical dependency vulnerable.
- Assess and prioritize : map critical assets, their dependencies and their access conditions during a fire or storm.
- Intercepting and conducting lightning : designing, when analysis requires it, an external protection system with ESE, down conductors and Equipotential Spark Gap adapted to the site.
- Dissipating energy into the ground : check the continuity and design of the grounding, especially in dry or rocky soils.
- Limiting overvoltages : coordinate surge protectors on power inputs and sensitive lines to protect automation and communications.
- Maintain and document : plan inspections, record interventions and follow up on corrective actions.
In practical terms, a power distribution unit (ESE) is not chosen in isolation: its integration must be consistent with the conductors, Equipotential Spark Gap, and grounding. Furthermore, telemetry boxes, sensors, radios, and PLCs require surge protection adapted to their networks. The quality of the grounding directly influences the overall performance.
Early warning: from lightning detection to on-the-ground decision
Physical protection reduces the impact of a lightning strike; it does not prevent the arrival of a storm. This is why those responsible for remote sites need actionable information before, during, and after a lightning event. In the case of Oregon, the use of drones to locate hotspots illustrates the importance of quickly observing potentially affected areas.
Sky Sentinel provides real-time weather alerts, useful for helping teams trigger a safety protocol, postpone a high-rise intervention, or organize a patrol after a storm. Conversely, Strike Radar records lightning data : this information can support post-incident analysis, event documentation, and prioritization of inspections. These two functions are complementary and should not be confused.
- define an alert threshold and the people authorized to make the decision;
- to protect the teams and suspend exposed activities according to the site's procedure;
- record the event and identify the assets to be inspected as a priority;
- control alarms, power supplies, communication links and peripheral zones;
- document the feedback in order to improve the next intervention plan.
This decision-making chain must remain simple, even under pressure. Therefore, alerts are only effective if they are linked to roles, backup communication channels, and a pre-established action list. Connected solutions can thus help make information available at the right time to the relevant teams.
Climate, drought and lightning: a risk to monitor over time
A dry lightning event results from specific local conditions: atmospheric instability, humidity at different altitudes, a high cloud base, and the heat and dryness of the fuel. It would therefore be unwise to attribute a particular fire to a single general climatic cause. Nevertheless, when hot, dry periods persist, the potential consequences of each strike increase.
Major climate variability patterns, such as El Niño, can alter rainfall patterns and convective activity depending on the region and season. They can amplify thunderstorm activity in certain contexts, but they are not an automatic explanation. Therefore, operators should combine local forecasts, actual vegetation conditions, and lightning data rather than relying on a single indicator.
- Monitor local conditions : soil dryness, wind, temperature, accessibility and air quality.
- Review scenarios : adjust contingency plans before periods of risk, not after a disaster.
- Testing continuity : verify backup power supply, alternative communications, and availability of critical components.
- Capitalizing on data : comparing alerts, recorded impacts, inspections and observed incidents.
Finally, resilience is also built through traceability. Once the installation is protected and procedures are defined, LPS Manager helps organize the monitoring of installations, inspections, keraunic reports, and lightning strike certificates accessible via Strike Radar. This documented overview supports maintenance decisions, particularly when teams manage multiple dispersed sites.
Key points to remember for sites exposed to fire
The Umatilla fires demonstrate that lightning can simultaneously threaten natural environments and the infrastructure upon which populations depend. Dry lightning is particularly dangerous because rainfall may not reach the ground while the strikes multiply. Consequently, protecting a critical site requires combining the IEC 62305 approach, ESE (Power Distribution Array), Equipotential Spark Gap, grounding, surge arresters, and warning procedures.
Furthermore, real-time alerts from Sky Sentinel and event recording by Strike Radar facilitate decision-making, inspections, and lessons learned. Integrated management within LPS Manager complements this approach by making maintenance actions and documentation more accessible. For an exposed site, the key question is therefore not simply "Is an impact possible?" but rather "Are we prepared to maintain critical services after such an impact?"
