Lightning fried my sprinkler system

[aehusted]

So a couple months ago, two days after the company came out to check and de-winterize the system, it gets fried by lighting. At least this is what seems to have happened. The RainBird controller was literally blown open and all blackened inside. There was no damage to any electronics in the house and no surge protectors were tripped, so I am assuming that the strike came up from the valve control wiring.
So my question is: am I just unlucky or is there some way to prevent this from happening again? I have read a bit elsewhere about the dangers of having multiple grounds from your building(when mounting antennas and such) and it seems to me that this falls into the same basic category.

Any advice on how to keep lighting from striking twice? Or am I just getting paranoid?

 

[DrunkenLizard]

Reminds me of how the gate system at my old apartment would get fried at least once every two months. There was a period where it it happened three times in as many weeks.

 

[johnoc]

I had the exact same thing happen last year. I replaced my Rain8net with the new Rain8net Pro which has surge protection for each zone. So far so good.... But it does cost a bit more!!