They say that if you find yourself out in the mountains during a lightning storm, that you should get away from trees and rocks as they can act as lightning rods and you would get zapped if you're near them. OK, so now you're out in the open and YOU are the tallest object relative to your location. What now? It seems then you become the lightning rod.
So tell me, what is wrong with this picture?

While I was on a flight to Montana for a fire assignment back in the eighties, I was cautioned about the predicted thunder storms in the area, where they were predicted to be intense for a few days. The guy sitting next to me said that the best thing to do in a lightning event is to squat down, placing your hind end as close as possible to the ground. He went on to explain that lightning will take the path of least resistance, and will exit the (ah hem) rear oraphace when seeking ground. He said that this was a better alternative then to have the bottoms of your feet blown off as lightning was trying to contact ground.
Okay, when he got to that part of the lecture, I had to call BS. Am I wrong?
What is the real deal guys. There's an active storm occurring right now outside where I work, and there are guys out there doing survival training. I've been listening to them on the radio and they sound pretty spooked. I think they should turn off their radios personally, but who am I?
Anyone have the best alternative, other than seeking the shelter of a house or automobile? Sometimes that's just not an option.

 

www.harkphoto.com/light.html

 

I don't know...I think I'd rather have the bottoms my feet blown off than to have the bottom of my...bottom(!) blown off and have to use a colostomy bag for the rest of my life!

I agree Tim, I have to raise the BS flag on that one:

You know the worst thing about a colostomy bag? Finding shoes to match!

 

Yeah, what this guys seemed to imply was that there was already an opening there so it would not cause much damage, except maybe a little burning I'm sure. Nothing a little preparation H wouldn't make quick work of.

With the colostomy bag, I would be more concerned with matching underware than shoes I think.
Now if lightning took one heel off a little more than the other side, then you might be worried about finding a matching pair.

 

A little burning... !!! Talk about cauterizing those 'rhoids!

Oh, and just buy your undies in two-tone, yellow and brown, and you got it covered! (Yellow goes in front...well, you get the picture!)

 

At least you could still walk I suppose. Maybe a little bow legged but at least you'd stand on your feet eh?
Really Dan, you're up in them Northern California Hills. I'm sure you've been given some tips on lightning safety. Got a bunch of Marines up on the mountain. They're up at about 7200 feet learning how to eat bugs and stay warm. Poor guys. Snow's predicted tonight too.
Alchymist, I couldn't open your link. I'll try it again at my home computer tomorrow.

 

Funny thing is, lightning storms are very rare here. A couple per year, that's about it. They were a lot more common when I lived up in Shasta county.

 

What part of the hills have claimed you residency these days? I thought you lived in the Shasta area. Must have missed something.
I know you have stated lately that you are remote. I assumed that was at Shasta..

 

I'm not really remote, I just seem to be remote from any other chapter members. I'm at Clear Lake.

 

Part of that story is accurate.


The part about getting small is the accurate part.
If you are the tallest thing around, then become not the tallest thing around.
Hunker in a low spot, the squatting position was suggested because it offers the lowest attitude with the least amount of grounding surface, not because you may suddenly be able to expell fire out of yur ****.

Try this for the real deal courtesy of NOAA . . .

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/

and . . . .

Level-5: If circumstances or a series of bad decisions have found you outside of a shelter, far removed from a safer place when lightning is occurring, there are still measures to be taken. If lightning is about to strike, it will sometimes provide a very few seconds of warning. Sometimes your hair may stand on end, your skin will tingle, light metal objects will vibrate or you will hear a crackling or "kee-kee" sound. If this happens and you're in a group, spread out so there are several body lengths between each person. Once you've spread out, use the lightning crouch. Put your feet together, squat down, tuck your head, and cover your ears. When the immediate threat of lightning has passed, continue heading to the safest place possible.

From here: http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/ams_lightning_rec.htm

Theres tons more but you get the drift.

Edit: Jeeze, somehow I missed Alchemist' link DOH! good one

Oh yeah, those guys should turn off the radio and take down the 20' antenna.
Thats why the lookouts go out of service when lightning is close.

This happened this year on my forest.

Lookout was in the process of calling in a smoke during a thunderstorm.
I hadjust acknowledged his initial report and he was about to give me the azimuth, distance and tentative legal.

He got 1 sylablle out, we hear a loud POP, immediately after that was followed by "OH JESUS!" The next transmission was "stand by a second".
An engine in the area came on and said the tower had taken a direct hit, that they had seen it. 15 maybe 20 seconds passed and the lookout came back on and finished his report and promptly went out of service for lightning.
When he came back in service a half an hour later I called him on the cell to check on him. A bit shaken but otherwise well, he told me he knew it was close but not that close.

I have known this fellow for 20 years, he's been hit before, the same way. He said he thought he had learned.

Sorry I'm wordy but this one related . . . .
War Stories from the fireman.

Rich

 

fyre82,
Ironically, I just typed a response to your post and my computer shut down as a result of a thunderstorm currently pounding my neighborhood. Lots of lightning and snow. Pretty wild weather.
Anyway, I enjoyed your lookout story. I can imagine that the 15 - 20 seconds of silence were the fire watch checking his undies.
I too have a background in wildland fire where I have some acquired stories to tell. That one about the guy's direction to squat for purposes of keeping the bottoms of your feet is one that I like to use in training on lightning safety for our enlisted personnel hand crew. More for entertainment than anything. Fun story.
Some of my personal stories on close calls, where I got a case of pucker (not good for the heels ), were certainly spookie. Seeing an approaching T cell, I have tended to look for safe areas regarding increasing fire activity, rather than places to go regarding the lightning itself. It seems that the direction we get is kind of contradictory when you consider we're told to get away from the taller objects, yet in doing so we become the taller object in the process. Seems it's all relative you know?
I guess it's just kind of a way to make you feel that you are minimizing potentials when you're in a precarious position, with not many real good alternatives. Kind of like clasping your arms around your the back of your knees while in a rapidly descending helicopter for the crash position to bend over and kiss your butt goodbye.
That exit opening concept in the post I made kind of adds a little humor to an otherwise boring training course.
Any way, I was thinking about how worried the guys sounded on the radio last night and thought that it might be a fun story to discuss. Well, fun for us anyhow. Half of those kids out there were probably scared to death.
Good links though. Thanks, T

 

Gotta love that lighting and snow, it's an awesome sight.

When I worked on the Sequoia we constatnly had the camos sneaking around the forest on survival training. Couldn't see 'em most of the time, but the antenna was a dead give away.

One day I was walking onto a lightning fire to check it and out of the bushes stepped a couple of these guys, full camo, face paint and the whole works.
Scared the bejesus out of the two of us. They said "bang bang your'e dead" and laughed. After we regained our compsure we asked them if they started the fire, which they replied "No, but it was fun watching you guys work. We don't ever want to do that stuff." They also said they didn't like it when the sky boomed and threw lightning at 'em. It was our turn to laugh . . .
Rich

 

Interesting...I wonder how many of us in this chapter have FF experience. I was an EMT-I and training officer for my local VFD when I lived in Shasta county. You guys ever get up to the Weaverville Oil Fire school? Fascinating, it was...I got to go twice, since our VFD was close by we always got an invite.

 

I've been on fire assignments in the Weaverville area twice that I can remember. And maybe a couple of times that I can't as the guys would find me in a bar from time to time, and chuck my butt on the crew hauls, and off to the wild world.
I can definately recall, through the haze, a trip to Hayfork for the big 1987 fires, where I actually witnessed a guy (looking like one of the Gratefull Dead band) walking out of the woods with a pitch fork saying, "hey dude, cool" as he walked by. I was just waking up from a long needed nap after a really long shift. I would imagine that he was attending to his crops.
Anyway, I was back there again in 1994 for a fire assignment in some REALLY steep Weaverville country, as I recall. Nice people in Weaverville. Neat town.
Any other assignments, I was probably on the tail end of an exciting rendezvous with some bar fly I caught in my sticky paper, after a long weekend, and was quickly scurried off to another assignment to another remote part of our wonderfull country before I realized I had ever even been in Weaverville.
My brother was involved in a head on collision with a logging truck in Weaverville back sometime in the 70's. He was driving a 55 Ford, all fixed up for race, like a stink bug. Nice car, but not after the collision. What a shame. Anyway, I have alot of memories of Weaverville. At least the ones I can remember. LOL

Tigerdan and fyre82,
I did a long stint in the old Forest Circus, then took a detour in my career to DOD where I currently am a fireman (totally for the family's sake I might add). I am an EMT, hazmat fool, WMD canary etc... there, among other things, but my heart will always be with the wildland fashion of firefighting. I really miss those days. But not the winter paychecks. We do have a Type 3 and Type 6 Bruch Engine there, and we also have a group of volunteer Marines that we train and take out on assignments, but nothing like the good old days.


Tigerdan, I really really do think that we need to get together and play guitfiddle sometime and talk about good times. Hopefully we can all get together on a chapter meet and do a camping trip somewhere where we won't disturb the neighbors.

 

I suspect you're right, Tim. And we don't really live all that far apart...maybe 3-4 hours? I'm hoping we can put some sort of a good chapter event together for sometime in the spring. But maybe we can even do something before that. As I've said before, I forsee things slowing down for me somewhat after the first of the year. I don't know how that fits in for everybody else.

The Mendocino coast is nice...

Interesting that you should mention Hayfork. I lived up there for a few years as a child, actually in between Hayfork and Hyampom (where the hell is Hyampom...? Who Cares? )

I envy you. I really should have stayed in firefighting and emergency medicine, I really enjoyed it. But the local FD where I moved to after leaving Shasta co. was pretty cliquish and didn't really welcome newcomers, and I sort of let it go. One of my big regrets...