Lightning kills South Florida landscape worker
17 Aug, 2007 LM Direct!Parkland, FL — Lightning struck and killed a 24-year-old landscape worker on Aug. 16 here. Domingo Andres Francisco was operating a weed trimmer near a lake in this South Florida community when a bolt of lightning hit him.
Co-workers reportedly alerted the homeowner who made the 911 call, but Francisco immediately went into cardiopulmonary arrest, according to local news reports. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported that there have been 15 lightning-related deaths and 82 injuries in South Florida in the last seven years. Francisco was reportedly the third person in South Florida to be struck and killed by lightning in less than a month, reported the newspaper.
While most people associate lightning with thunderstorms, it can actually strike miles away from the nearest thunderstorm, even when the sky overhead is blue. Don’t take chances with lightning. Seek shelter and instruct workers to seek shelter when you hear thunder and see lightning, even if it appears to be far off, safety experts say.
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