2 South Florida Men Survive Separate Lightning Strikes

August 17, 2011

Officials say a landscape worker and a crane operator in South Florida both survived separate lightning strikes just hours apart.

Davie Fire Rescue reports that a man was weeding near a chain-link fence at Indian Ridge Middle School Monday afternoon when it was apparently hit by lightning. He was taken to a nearby hospital. Officials say the man was dazed but in relatively good condition.

Two hours later, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that a crane operator at a highway construction site in northern Broward County was injured when lightning hit the crane. Deerfield Beach Fire-Rescue reports the man suffered burns to his abdomen and right arm. He was taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition.