WEST HAVEN -- The lightning storm that moved through the Top of Utah Friday morning injured a construction worker when a bolt nearly hit him.
The man, in his late 30s, was not immediately identified. He was walking toward his truck at the Granite Construction Company supply site in West Haven when lightning struck the truck at 9:15 a.m., said Capt. Casey Naef of Weber Fire District. Because of how close he was, the man was thrown several feet in the air and landed on his face.
"He had facial injuries and hand abrasions ... and was probably knocked unconscious due to the strike," Naef said.
He was conscious but not fully alert when emergency responders arrived. Ogden city paramedics took him in an ambulance to McKay-Dee Hospital in serious condition, though he was "coming around" and started talking on the way there, Naef said.
The strike left burnt holes in the bottom of the truck tires, where the lightning exited the vehicle.
Someone getting struck or nearly struck by lightning is a fairly uncommon occurrence, Naef said. This was the first such case he's been assigned to since he became a firefighter.
The man was in stable condition as of Friday evening, said Abby Albrecht, spokeswoman for Granite Construction.
"He's been with us for a while. He's a very nice employee," she said.
The lightning developed during an intense local storm that dropped heavy rain for a short time in scattered locations.
"We had a disturbance that came through and intensified as it moved through the north and moved off through the east," said Linda Cheng, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.
The storm is to be expected during August, when Utah is in its monsoon season, Cheng said.
The threat of storms is expected to remain in the Top of Utah through the weekend, mainly east of Interstate 15, as drier air continues to move in from the west, according to the NWS. The storms could generate brief heavy rains, gusty winds and dangerous cloud-to-ground lightning, the NWS reports.
High temperatures will remain in the low 90s, with nighttime lows in the low to mid 60s.
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