Avoid Using Phones, Electronic Gadgets During Storms
Police say after lightning kills three in Mberengwa
By Delicious Mathuthu
Mberengwa, Zimbabwe – The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has issued a warning to the public to exercise extreme caution during the rainy season, especially when using electronic devices like cell phones.
The warning comes after a tragic incident that occured at Chimurenga Mine, Vanguard area in Mberengwa, where three miners lost their lives to a lightning strike.
The incident, which happened on February 19, 2025, at approximately 4 pm, eight miners sought shelter in a nearby wooden cabin as heavy rains, thunder, and lightning struck.
A bolt of lightning struck the cabin, reports say, claiming the lives of Simbarashe Chimombe (23), Clemence Mucheri (36), and Pardon Ncube (23).
The other five miners were injured and taken to Mberengwa District Hospital where they are receiving treatment.
“Police are appealing to members of the public to avoid use of cell phones, landlines or any other electronic gadgets that may attract lightning during times of rains,” Midlands Police Spokesperson Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko said after the tragedy.
However, professional institutions, such as the National Weather Service and the American Meteorological Society, advise that cell phones do not attract lightning, but landlines.
They stress that lightning is attracted to tall objects, such as trees, buildings, and power lines, which provide a path of least resistance for the electrical discharge.
The myth that cellphones attract lightning gained traction from a 2006 report in the British Medical Journal, which incorrectly claimed that the Australian Lightning Protection Standard advised against using mobile phones during storms, online research shows.
The standard (AS/NZS 1768-2003) however did not explicitly state such recommendation.
Research by Associate Professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago in the United States of America, Dr. Mary Ann Cooper, says mobile phones themselves pose no inherent lightning danger.
“No lightning danger is inherent to cellular phones. Although many reports of lightning injuries involve people who are using cell phones, these reports represent the ubiquity of cell phone usage and of their users’ inattentiveness to weather conditions and have nothing to do with the phones themselves,” she said.
Dr. Cooper further clarifies that electrical lightning damage is exclusive to landline phones, not mobile phones.
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