Residents React After Lightning Nearly Strikes Children On Trampoline
Sep 6, 2019, 10:37 PM | Updated: Jul 16, 2023, 4:04 pm
ERDA, Utah – A few young children were jumping on a trampoline when a lightning bolt struck a metal water fountain less than 10 feet away from them.
The bolt struck Thursday night ahead of a storm in Tooele County.
“It was very, very loud,” said 7-year-old Addy Dew while pointing to a spot next to the trampoline she was jumping on. “Lightning struck.”
Dew said it was a sound she will never forget while another child said she felt the electricity in her feet.
“At first, they were tingling, and then it started, like, a sharp pain kind of,” said 10-year old Dallie Steadman. “We just left our shoes off and ran away.”
Video of the lightning strike was captured from a home security camera just down the road.
The bolt is thick and loud with a crack that rumbles for more than ten seconds.
(Warning: the crack of lighting is very loud at the beginning of this video)
Some people in Tooele County are still talking about the lightning storm that rolled through last night. Especially in this Erda neighborhood, where lightning struck just a few feet from where kids were playing. Our reporter Alex Cabrero KSL spoke with them and will have their story tonight in our 10 o’clock newscast.
Posted by KSL 5 TV on Friday, September 6, 2019
“I’ve never heard anything that loud before,” said Leslie Steadman, who was outside her home when the bolt struck. “It was so loud that it literally just dropped me to my knees.”
Lightning wasn’t the only thing she heard.
Right after the crack, she said she also heard kids crying from behind the house where they were jumping on that trampoline.
“They came running around barefoot,” Steadman said. “I grabbed their hands and we went running and they were crying.”
That lightning bolt had struck a metal water fountain less than 10 feet away from the trampoline the kids were jumping on.
All of the children were doing better and were back doing flips and tricks on the same trampoline Friday afternoon.
“Everybody is okay,” Steadman said. “It has a happy ending.”
However this time, they watched the sky as well as the ground while they played.
