Fiber Optic Cable Lighting Strike??

On Wednesday it was said to me by a customer that a lightning bolt hit the 
fiber cable to their house and blew the Fiber box off the wall.  Verizon
had 
to replace the whole box.

It was stated to the customer by (I assume) the Verizon guy, that the 
lightning strike that hit a tree and blew out the ground from the tree in
a 
line to across the driveway (some 30 feet long)to a point where the fiber
is 
buried.  This point is easily 1/4 mile from the house and followed it to
the 
Fiber/Phone box blowing it off the wall and knocking out the phone
service.

I had to replace the phone line protector that I had installed on the 
security panel.  Panel was ok and functions with out a problem.

There a lot of "Say What's???" and "Really's??" in the story above.

The fiber runs on top of the underground power cables that run beside the 
driveway.

So what is your opinion???  :-)

Later,

Les