Lightning kills man beneath cloudless sky
Pastor Dale Morgan
Lightning kills man beneath cloudless sky*
A Dade landscaper died after being struck by an unusual type of
lightning that's stronger, hotter, lasts longer and strikes from clear
skies.
By TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE AND LUISA YANEZ
With no rain or even clouds to warn him of the danger, death came
literally out of the blue Thursday to a self-employed landscaper. The
killer was a powerful bolt of lightning that cracked through perfectly
clear skies.
David Canales, 41, of West Miami-Dade, was on the job at a Pinecrest
home when the bolt hit. It first seared a tree, then traveled and struck
Canales, standing nearby.
Experts said Canales was killed by a weather phenomenon fittingly called
a ''bolt from the blue'' or ''dry lightning'' because it falls from
clear, blue skies. He was pronounced dead at South Miami Hospital.
Canales is the latest victim of one of Florida's least enviable honors:
It's the country's lightning capital. Five of the 47 people killed by
lightning across the country last year were in Florida.
Dan Dixon, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami,
said that when Canales was hit, a typical afternoon storm was forming
but nowhere near the area.
Weather data showed that lightning activity picked up north of Pinecrest
shortly before 1 p.m., as a storm gathered momentum and swept through
Coral Gables and then downtown.
''Most lightning will come from the base of a thunderstorm, inside that
rain-shaft area,'' Dixon explained. ``But occasionally, what we call a
bolt from the blue comes out of a thunderstorm still several miles away.''
The fair-weather bolts pack a bigger, deadlier punch and form differently.
Most lightning bolts carry a negative charge, but ''bolts from the
blue'' have a positive charge, carry as much as 10 times the current,
are hotter and last longer.
The bolts normally travel horizontally away from the storm and reach
farther than typical lightning, then curve to the ground. This bolt
struck the front yard of a home at 10500 SW 62nd Ave.
''My wife said the sky was blue, but the lightning bolt was the most
horrible sound she had heard in her life,'' said Clemente Vazquez-Bello,
owner of the home where Canales and two workers had come to do landscaping.
Startled by the violent sound, Margarita Vazquez-Bello ran to the
backyard. The men were not there. Canales' workers were knocking on the
front door, seeking help.
She dialed 911. Officers with the Village of Pinecrest and Miami-Dade
Fire-Rescue arrived at the home. But Canales was in grave condition when
transported, said rescue spokesman Lt. Elkin Sierra.
The Vazquez-Bellos rushed to South Miami Hospital, where Canales was
pronounced dead. Canales' wife, also at the hospital, could not be
reached for comment.
Vazquez-Bello said Canales was ''a wonderful human being'' and a
dependable hard worker.
''We feel terrible about this,'' said Vazquez-Bello, a Miami attorney.
Dixon said protecting yourself from such unexpected lightning is difficult.
''They are very unpredictable and very dangerous. We urge people to stay
indoors even if you hear thunder only faintly in the distance,'' Dixon
said. ``If you're close enough to hear thunder, you're close enough to
be struck by lightning.''
Earlier this month, a worker was hospitalized after being struck at a
construction site in Miami. Nine people, including three children, were
forced out of their Plantation home after a lightning strike caused a fire.
There has been at least one fatality in South Florida this year: A
person on a roof in Miramar was killed by lightning May 19, Dixon said.
It's not the first time in South Florida ''bolts from the blue'' have
proven deadly.
In August 1988, a Norwegian couple vacationing in South Florida were
struck while standing on a Fort Lauderdale beach. Witnesses said the sky
was cloudless.
Miami Herald staff writer Penny McCrea and researcher Monika Z. Leal
contributed to this report.