HOLMES BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) – Four people were hit, including one who was hospitalized, after lightning struck on a Florida beach Monday.
Lightning struck a canopy that the four were standing under, according to the Holmes Beach Police Department.
The victim taken to the hospital is a man in his 30s. The fire department did not have an update on his condition.
A man who didn’t want to speak with Nexstar’s WFLA at the time said the victim was his brother. He showed his hands with blisters on them from moments after the lightning strike.
Don Ashley saw the whole thing.
“They were out there, and then they all got underneath the canopy made of metal and the cloth, and bam, I saw the bolt at the end of it, hit the top of it, and all of them simultaneously just, bam — all on the ground,” said Ashley.
He showed WFLA where the canopy was positioned on the beach and said it was being weighed down by the rain in the heavy storm.
“A couple of lightnings were close and I was going, ‘eh,’ then all of a sudden, fate hit, bam,” said Ashley. “It was sickening to watch, but they started getting up.”
WFLA tracked 153 lightning strikes at 3:59 p.m. — many of them covering Holmes Beach.
Rodney Kwiatkowski, the fire marshal for the West Manatee Fire Rescue District, said this was their first call of someone being struck by lightning this season.
“We’re in season now. Thunderstorms pick up in the afternoon, you can expect more and more,” said Kwiatkowski. “When thunder roars, go indoors.”
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