Intense video shows moments after lightning strike sets boat ablaze on Alabama lake

By Jon Paepcke

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    LOGAN MARTIN LAKE, Alabama (WVTM) — A lightning strike on Logan Martin Lake Sunday afternoon set a boat ablaze, injuring three people, one of whom is in intensive care.

The incident occurred around 3:30 p.m. near Pirate Island, about 150 yards from the shore. Four people were aboard the boat when a storm quickly blew in, and a lightning bolt hit the vessel, causing it to burst into flames.

Three passengers suffered burns, and a nearby pontoon boat rescued them from the sinking watercraft, racing them to Todd Rhinehart’s dock for emergency care. The Pell City Fire Department showed up to put out the flames on the boat, which eventually sank to the bottom of the lake.

The person piloting the burning boat was hurt the worst and had to be rushed to a hospital. Rhinehart said the man appeared to have a seizure before he was placed in an ambulance.

Rhinehart did his best to make the injured man comfortable before paramedics arrived.

When asked if being struck by lightning on a lake would classify as one of a boater’s worst nightmares, Rhinehart said, “I don’t know if I can think of anything worse. I mean, the boat was struck and immediately caught fire, and then it burned. It burned so bad it eventually sank.”

Rhinehart spoke with one of the men who survived the lightning strike Monday morning and said the person most severely burned is expected to be in the hospital for the next three to four days.

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