A 40-year-old man indirectly struck by lightning this evening at the Adams County Fairgrounds is recovering in the hospital from second- and third-degree burns.
Chip Wiman was standing under a tree during a weather delay around 6 p.m. for his daughter’s track meet when lightning hit.
“I was leaning against a tree and ‘Kaboom!’ I didn’t lose consciousness, that I know of,” Wiman said. “I remember laying there thinking I had my legs blown off.”
The lightning traveled through the tree and up through the ground, using Wiman as a conductor, said Sgt. Terrance O’Neill, spokesman for Adams County Fire.
Wiman, his daughter and her teammates were standing under a shelter in the park waiting for the storm to pass. Wiman said he is a little claustrophobic and decided to move less than five feet away to stand under the tree.
“There were literally 200 people standing a foot away from me. It’s a blessing no one else got hurt,” he said. The meet was canceled after his injury, he said.
He said he never thought he could be struck by lightning and, at the time, thought waiting out the storm was overly cautious.
“I will always take lightning serious from now on,” Wiman said. “It sounded like an A-bomb.”
Wiman said doctors at St. Joseph Hospital told him he was a lucky man. He will be kept overnight for tests and observation.
He said you can see the trail of singed hair on his leg where the lightning traveled through his body.
Wiman added: “There is a huge exit wound on my bottom where I was rubbing the tree. If it had been my chest or head, it would be a different story.”
