A man was struck by lightning while picnicking outside of the Sprucewold Lodge during the brief but violent thunderstorms that passed through the region on Saturday, August 16.

Fire Chief Glenn Townsend says the dispatch center received a 911 call at 5:26 p.m. requesting an ambulance for a man who had been struck by lightning. Shortly thereafter, a call came in requesting assistance with a fire.

Witnesses told the Boothbay Harbor Fire Department that the man struck, Tom Hughes, was outside of the covered picnic are when the lightning hit the back of his left shoulder.

He was conscious and alert when an ambulance arrived, and was taken to St. Andrews Hospital for treatment. He is recovering there.

Chief Townsend says he radioed the Boothbay and Southport fire stations for backup immediately after he heard the ambulance call, in case the two-story wooden lodge was on fire.

Minutes later, he received a call to the fire department reporting smoke at the lodge. The smoke, it turned out, came from a fire extinguisher used on a smoldering electrical box.

The lodge was evacuated, and the fire departments checked for other hot spots in the electrical system, and found just one.

Townsend says damage was limited to the building's fire alarm system, and was relatively minor.

Guests at the Sprucewold Lodge who were sitting in the building's lounge when the lightning struck report seeing a ball of lightning travel down the lodge's hallway.

Townsend says the fire department was unable to determine exactly where the lightning first touched ground.

Lightning from the same storm also hit an electrical transformer outside of the Newagen Seaside Inn on Southport.

The inn was without electricity for about four hours while CMP crews repaired the damage.

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