Caution 'Vital' for lightning rod crew
By BENJAMIN C. SHARP news@leader-news.com

There's two rules Jose Vital never breaks when he's on the job: always tie off to something heavy and never, ever work when it's raining.

"I'm a real stickler for safety," Vital says.

It's easy to see the logic of such caution when considering his job. As a foreman with Katy-based Taylor Lightning Protection, Vital is charged with setting up lightning rods on commercial structures.

That usually entails climbing to the top of a building that's several stories high, inching out to the roof's edge, bolting down a lightning rod and then stringing copper wire to the ground. A job for the fainthearted, this is not.

Yet Vital appears right at home hanging from the precipice of life-threatening danger. On Monday, he and co-worker Juan Jimenez smoothly traversed the slick metal roof of the Wharton County Courthouse as they inspected the newly restored structure's vulnerability to lightning.

That calm is in large part due to experience. Vital says he has completed similar tasks across the state. The sense of ease is also a result of always adhering to safety procedures. Before venturing out onto the courthouse roof on Monday, Vital and Jimenez both attached safety ropes to bolted-down airconditioning units.

Their inspection revealed a weakness in protection above the building's four entrances. Vital says lightning rods, made of aluminum, are supposed to be set every 20 feet on such a structure.

Though the courthouse has six rods, the roof structure above the building's doorways - affectionately called "doghouses" due to their appearance - had no such protection.

Vital and Jimenez fixed that problem Monday, but not by installing any more rods. Instead, copper wiring was attached to the decorative cresting that runs along the top of these entrances.

"We can bond to the cresting since it's made of metal," Vital said.

The copper wiring attached to the cresting and lightning rods is stretched from the roof to the ground. Class 1 wiring is used for structures shorter than 75 feet in height, while Class 2 is used for structures that are taller than that.

While working, Vital periodically raises his eyes to the sky, continuously cognizant of the ever-changing South Texas weather.

Getting caught on a roof during a thunderstorm with copper wire looped around your torso and a stack of aluminum rods in your hand is nothing Vital wants to ever experience.

"We don't do it when it's raining," he said.