A fishing enthusiast is now safe at home in Massachusetts after being struck by lightning while fishing on Sebago Lake last week.
A thunderstorm swept through the Lakes Region and southern Maine on Thursday afternoon, June 1, knocking out power to thousands of homes with wild winds and a downpour of fierce rain.
David Parsons, of Haverhill, Mass., had been fishing by boat with friends on Sebago Lake when they saw the weather turn sour. They came ashore at Sebago Lake State Park in Casco where they had been camping and, as Parsons ran to get his car and haul the boat out of the water, a lightning bolt stuck him.
“It blasted me into the air and I was a crumpled up ball when I landed,” Parsons said. “My shoes were smoking and my fishing rod was fried.”
Parsons landed 50 feet from where he was struck, according to the police. The bolt singed his hair, clothes and left Parsons temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. With his friends still near the boat launch, Parsons screamed out for help and a fellow camper at the park came to his rescue.
Parsons was transported by ambulance to Maine Medical Center in Portland where he spent the night and was released the next day.
Now back at home in Massachusetts, Parsons said the paralysis is gone and only a slight pain in his leg remains to remind him of the harrowing experience.
Parson said he was pointing his fishing rod down while running when the strike occurred and believes that lightning struck a nearby tree and entered his feet through the roots. The lightning then traveled through his body and out his fishing rod. His local doctor is now keeping tabs on his condition.
Parsons – a sign engraver and avid angler who comes up to Sebago Lake once a year to fish for salmon – is not letting the lightning strike stop him from returning to Sebago Lake.
“I owe one to Mother Nature if you know what I mean,” Parsons said. “I won’t let this scare me away.”
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