A man has died after being hit by lightning while hiking in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday with his wife.
The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said the couple was hiking the Bear Creek Trail on Flagstaff Mountain at 1 p.m. in the afternoon when the event occurred.
Authorities said they received a 911 call regarding a 36-year-old man who was hit by lightning. Reports state that his wife was not hit, but she was injured by the strike’s electrical current.
A fellow hiker began performing CPR on the man until Boulder County rangers arrived at the scene. The rangers then took over and used a defibrillator to establish his pulse.
He was then airlifted to a hospital, where he later died.
A press release from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said they believe he died due to a lightning strike directly hitting his upper body.
“The man’s wife is not believed to have been directly hit but suffered injuries as a result of the ancillary electrical current from the strike that hit her husband. The woman was transported, conscious and breathing, by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment of her non-life-threatening injuries,” the statement said.
Courtney Wenzel of Rocky Mountain Fire was one of the emergency responders at the scene and said instances like this “don’t happen very often.”
“We’re all kind of shocked to show up on something like that,” he commented.
Isaiah Cormier was also struck by lightning at a campground in Boulder County last year. He said his former girlfriend saved his life by performing CPR.
“I would not be here today if my girlfriend at the time had not had CPR certification, and thankfully it was fresh on her mind so even if people have gotten certified before, it doesn’t hurt to get a refresher course,” he said.
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