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Two men and two women were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries Thursday evening after an apparent lightning strike in Lafayette Square, north of the White House, according to the D.C. Fire Department.
The four adults were found shortly before 7 p.m. in the center of the park, in a grove of trees about 100 feet southeast of the Andrew Jackson statue, the fire department spokesman said , Vito Maggiolo, in a press conference Thursday night. The U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Park Police provided assistance to the victims, which fire officials attributed to the victims’ ability to initially survive.
It was not immediately clear why the victims were in the park at the time of the strike, Maggiolo said. Fire officials said park police will investigate the incident.
“Trees are not safe places,” Maggiolo said. “Anyone who goes to seek shelter under a tree, this is a very dangerous place.”
All four people were taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
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Authorities said the precise cause of his injuries remains under investigation.
A witness to the lightning described it as “massive. It shook the whole area. Literally like a bomb going off, that’s what it sounded like.”
The lightning was triggered by a strong thunderstorm that swept through the district shortly before 7 p.m. The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for much of the Beltway between 6:30 and 7:15 p.m., warning of threat of damaging wind gusts. up to 60 mph and quarter hail.
Chris Vagasky, an analyst at Vaisala, which operates a national lightning network, said in a message that there was “a 6-strike flash near the White House that struck the same spot on the ground” at 6:49 p.m. . He explained that it means six. Individual surges of electricity reached the same point on the ground in half a second.
Numerous thunderstorms, containing frequent lightning, swept through the region Thursday evening after temperatures soared into the mid-90s earlier in the day, prompting a heat advisory. Heat indices, a measure of how hot you feel taking humidity into account, reached between 100 and 110 degrees.
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The heat-fueled storms unleashed a 58 mph wind gust at Reagan National Airport and downed trees around Winchester, Columbia and Baltimore. The torrents also led to multiple reports of flooded roads around Baltimore.
Widespread power outages were reported, with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Twitter reporting more than 50,000 by late Thursday.
Lightning kills 23 people in the United States in an average year and has caused nine fatalities through 2022.