Miller Cees Piet, from the Alkmaar ‘Molen van Piet’ had the fright of his life this morning when lightning struck. His mill was damaged, but was ultimately able to escape disaster, he says on NH Radio.
It was an exciting morning for Cees and his family. Lightning struck early this morning. “You suddenly sit up in your bed and then in a second you are standing outside in your underwear. I knew immediately that it was lightning,” he says.
“Grab everything you need”
Cees lives with his wife and children on the first and second floor of the mill, located in the center of Alkmaar. “The first question I had was: did it hit the reeds directly? Because that is the most dangerous thing that can happen.”
Cees immediately sprinted outside to see if there was anything to see. “Fortunately that was not the case and I quickly went back inside to see if my wife had gotten the children out and how things were going there.” His children had been instructed to put on their clothes, shoes and coat. “And to grab everything they needed for school. Like your phone and your iPad.”
From pillar to post
To see what condition the mill was in, Cees went from place to place this morning: “I went into the mill myself and my family watched from below.” Because there was a burning smell, Cees rushed downstairs again to see where the damage was. “You can’t rest easy until you know where that smell comes from. The modem was blackened and the Bakelite-like stuff gave off that burning smell.”
The fact that a mill can sustain a lot of damage in the event of a lightning strike is not new to Cees: “We always say ‘fire is the worst thing there is’, because with these types of mills there is no stopping them. And with a lightning protector you can get by. not just there, because a direct hit, you really can’t do anything about it.”
Injury
Fortunately, the shock was greater than the overall damage to the mill, says Cees. “Tomorrow the millwright will come to fix the upper blade. It has suffered damage to the brake valves. These are not exciting things and can usually be repaired within one or two days. And the electrician will come tomorrow to fix the main fuse, because they had that today. not anymore.”