Lightning strike too close for comfort

BALLANCE Agri-nutrients staff members, from left: Paul Hartley, Chris Wright and Karl Magon in front of the oak tree struck by lightning. TC300608CT05

BY COLIN THORSEN

Three Ballance Agri-nutrients staff members were counting their lucky stars after narrowly avoiding a massive lightning strike in Te Awamutu on Friday.

Paul Hartley, Chris Wright and Karl Magon had just taken shelter under a grove of trees when lightning struck an oak tree not far from them. They had only walked past the demolished tree two minutes earlier.

Mr Magon says there was one big lightning strike, followed immediately by a clap of thunder.

‘‘We heard this huge bang, it was pretty crazy - out of control,’’ Mr Magon says . ‘‘The tree just exploded, there were bits of bark and trunk flying everywhere.’’

Conditions were ‘not too bad’ when the trio set out to fence off a drain.

‘‘It was just fate that we didn’t walk past the tree at the time of the strike - we would have been blown to bits,’’ says Mr Hartley.

‘‘Jeepers, I was holding fencing pliers at the time,’’ recalled Mr Wright. ‘‘It used to be a good tree for our livestock to shelter under but it’s only good for firewood now,’’ he says.

Ballance Agri-nutrients run 10 ‘beefies’ and three sheep on their three hectares on Paterangi Road. Fortunately for the stock, they were in the next paddock, 20 metres away.

Magon says he and his workmates did not see the actual lightning strike the tree but the flash and clap of thunder felt as though it was right on them. Magon’s father, Jeff, and his two Fonterra workmates saw the tree get ‘blown apart’ from the hut they were sheltering in 200 metres away.