Lightning bolt surges through Secunda house and strikes man in passage
The doctor said I was lucky to be alive to tell my story. It is by the grace of God that I am still here
SECUNDA – There was a bright white flash and then an orange glow before all turned black and he passed out.
This is what Mr Pieter Nel (25), a young motor technician, experienced when a lightning bolt struck him where he was standing in the hallway of his rented house in Voortrekker Street.
He spent several days in the Mediclinic Highveld to recover from the shock his body endured at about 1am on Monday, 4 February.
“Everything in my body aches. My heart rate is completely out of rhythm and I constantly feel nauseous and dizzy.
“I have absolutely no appetite,” explained Mr Nel. His voice and hands were still very shaky during his interview with Ridge Times.
Mr Nel, his grandmother, Ms Bettie du Preez and her brother Mr Rudolf van Vuuren, live in the house in Voortrekker Street.
According to Mr Nel, he woke from the excessive barks of his grandmother’s miniature Doberman pincher.
The dog was in Ms Du Preez’s room and Mr Nel stood up and went to quiet down the animal.
He turned back into the corridor and barely took three steps when the lightning surged through the security burglar alarm and struck Mr Nel.
“The force flung me through the air and I landed on my back,” he explained.
“I felt a burning pain piercing through my body. I smelled smoke.”
Ms Du Preez said there was a thunderous blast and then all went black in the house.
“It felt like a thunderstorm crashed down over my head.
“The entire house’s electricity was knocked out, and I still yelled at Pieter, but he did not answer. I searched around in the dark and found him in the passage.”
Ms Du Preez called her brother to help her pick up Mr Nel. His uncle was phoned who took him to hospital.
“The doctor said I was lucky to be alive to tell my story. It is by the grace of God that I am still here,” said Mr Nel who is also a sufferer from vitiligo – a disease that causes white patches on a person’s skin and can sometimes lead to hair loss.
According to Mr Nel lightning often strikes a very tall tree behind their home, but this time the bolt struck the Internet antennae that was mounted outside next to the DSTV dish.
“It appears that the current surged through the Internet installation and eventually also knocked out the alarm box that is mounted in my uncle’s closet.
“The current must have pushed out through the alarm control in the passage and through me. It exited at the floor,” explained Mr Nel.
The young man said last week that they suffered extensive damage, although most of it will be covered by the insurance.
“The insurance refuses however to pay out on the alarm system, because it should be part of house insurance, which is not the case, because I am merely renting, but the alarm system belongs to me.”
Yet Mr Nel is adamant to replace the alarm system.
Also read:
https://www.citizen.co.za/ridge-times/132363/man-dies-struck-lightning-near-sasol-secunda/
