Construction worker hit by lightning, not injured

Jen Lawson

Thursday, June 23, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

Construction worker Israel Lara was dazzled by the lightning that flashed through the Southern Nevada sky Wednesday, and he was even more amazed when he witnessed his co-worker get shocked by a bolt, causing the tips of his fingers to glow like lightbulbs.

"Sparks flew from his fingers," Lara said. "It looked like a Star Wars thing."

The 46-year-old man, whose name was not released, was alert and talking after the strike, which happened about 11:30 a.m. in a vacant dirt lot on Sunset Road just off of Decatur Boulevard near where the street dead-ends.

The location is across the street from the Nevada Highway Patrol's new Southern Nevada headquarters, and Trooper Angie Chavera, spokeswoman for the department, was first on the scene.

"He was very lucky," she said.

Lara said his co-worker was fixing the back of a yellow water tanker construction truck, standing in a puddle of water, when a bolt of lightning either hit the ground nearby or the truck.

The lightning traveled to the water where the man was standing and sent a jolt through him.

Lara leaped off the truck in fear, then realized his friend had been hit and pulled him out of the puddle.

"He said, 'I'm OK but shaken up,' " Lara said. "He just paused for a second and said, 'I can't feel my legs, my stomach is in a knot and I'm dizzy.' "

Chavera was returning to her office she saw several workers in the dirt lot a signaling for help, she said.

The victim appeared to be in pain and wasn't able to stand up, Chavera said, but suffered no visible injuries.

The Clark County Fire Department took the man to the hospital. He was complaining of chest pains, Lara said. He stayed overnight and was released this morning.

"My boss said he talked to him this morning and he was still a little out of it," Lara said.

He took today off work from his job with TWC Construction but was expected to be back tomorrow.

Lara said the incident stunned him because lightning injuries are so rare.

"The paramedics said, 'Go play the Lotto!' " he said.

The odds of being struck by lightning are one in 700,000, according to the National Weather Service said.

Although lightning struck in the valley hundreds of times Wednesday, causing more than a dozen wildland fires and at least one building fire, no one else was reported injured by lightning.

"It doesn't happen very often," county fire department spokesman Bob Leinbach said.

This week, from June 19 to 25, is the National Weather Service's Lightning Safety Awareness Week.

During the past 30 years, lightning killed an average of 67 people annually, and documented cases of lightning injuries average about 300 per year, according to the weather service.

Brian Fuis, spokesman for the weather service forecast office in Las Vegas, said lightning kills more people per year than any other weather emergency.

"The lightning will find the shortest path to terminate, and water is a good conductive source for electricity," he said. "If he was standing in a puddle of water, it's not a good place to be standing."

Only about 10 percent of lightning victims are killed, leaving 90 percent with various degrees of disability.

Lightning can affect the brain and nervous system, and survivors may experience intense headaches, ringing in the ears, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, sleep disturbances and seizures.

Luis Molina, who works for Best Petroleum, was standing outside a construction trailer in the dirt down the road from where the man was struck.

"It does scare me," he said.

Lara said when he and another co-worker got to the construction site Wednesday at 5 a.m. they commented on how beautiful the lightning looked in the dark sky.

"After all this happened, I asked him, 'Do you still think it looks cool?"' Lara said, "He said, 'No way, it's dangerous!' "