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Tuesday, July 28, 1998
Lightning nightmare recalled
By Tanya Flanagan
Review-Journal
The odds of getting struck by lightning lately seem to be better than hitting Megabucks.
Five people were shocked Friday afternoon by the same lightning bolt as they tried to rescue a man and his grandson who were trapped inside an overturned pickup on Interstate 15 near Sloan.
When Clark County Fire Department Capt. Scott Taggard, 35, was struck he was placing a neck and back brace on a man who was stumbling about the accident scene, about 15 miles south of Las Vegas. The bolt knocked him unconscious for about 30 seconds, said firefighter Holly Nicholson, 38, who was not shocked.
Also hit were Fire Department engineer Ralph Clary, 38, firefighter Mark Rainey, 34, and American Medical Response paramedics Glenn Glacer, 32, and Shannon Cavey, 35. All were treated at University Medical Center and released by Saturday. Taggard and Clary talked Monday about the experience, which happens to about 1 in 600,000 people annually. The top Megabucks jackpot hasn't been won in more than a year.
"I just remember waking up a few minutes later and Holly was taking care of me," Taggard said at a news conference at Nicholson's northwest Las Vegas home. "The pain felt like somebody hit me in the head with a sledgehammer. It was just incredible."
Nicholson immediately realized Taggard wasn't moving and other crew members also were down. Within minutes, she saw the other four stagger to their feet.
"I didn't have time to think. I was real busy. I saw the event take place, and I looked out of the truck and I saw my whole crew was hurt. You just have to do what you can," she said.
Clary recalled talking to Nicholson in the truck just before he felt a burning sensation at the back of his neck.
"My jaw locked up and I fell to the ground, unable to get up," he said. "But in a minute, I was able to push myself up from the ground and then I saw Captain Taggard."
He said the lightning seemed far off and isolated about 3 p.m. when they were heading to the accident scene. That is until a bolt struck the ground between the fire engine and the overturned truck. It shocked them and burned a bush between the two vehicles, Taggard said.
Once Clary returned to his feet, he called for help and began assisting others. Minutes later, a Fire Department helicopter arrived and the grandfather, Marvin C. Hamilton, 70, of Greenbrier, Ark., and his grandson, Andrew Sutton, 16, also of Greenbrier, were loaded onto it and flown to University Medical Center. Hamilton died; Sutton's condition was unavailable Monday.
The rescue crew members commended two bystanders who pitched in to help them with the crash victims. Glacer said the two men, whose names were unknown, helped carry the victims to the helicopter.
Firefighters and paramedics risk their lives daily when they enter burning buildings, but being faced with the unexpected possibility of death was eye-opening, Taggard said.
"You get a new appreciation for how fast your life can end, and that feeling of no control over it is overwhelming," he said.
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Clark County Fire Department Capt. Scott Taggard, left, and firefighter Holly Nicholson listen Monday as engineer Ralph Clary tells how lightning shocked him last week near Interstate 15 and Sloan. Taggard also was struck, but Nicholson was not.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
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