Two more hunters killed by lightning

[MuleyFever]

Didnt see another thread on this.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article312272311.html

 

[Spence1875]

That is crazy, two groups is two, one with two dogs. Very sad.

 

[tall]

What a shame. So sad for their families.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

SAD.

 

[MallardSX2]

Wow. That's terrible to hear.

 

[antlerridge]

Such a rare and tragic coincidence


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rclouse79]

Dang. After learning about these two unfortunate stories, I am going to be more conservative when storms come through. There was a time my son and I were headed down a ridge as a storm was coming in. I had my trekking poles strapped to my pack with the metal tip pointing up. I kept hearing a zst zst zst noise. I took my pack off and discovered the noise was coming from the tip of my trekking poles. When I held them handle side up there was nothing, but tip side up and I heard the zst zst zst again. We ran the rest of the way back to the rig. Scary stuff.

 

[MuleyFever]

Ive had one experience where I was camped up on a high saddle and a storm came through at night. I could feel the static and my hair on my arms was standing up. Scary situation for sure.

 

[BravoNovember]

There was a Wisconsin DNR employee that was killed by lightning as well.

Lightning strike kills Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources employee

Adam Zirbel, 48, was a forester for the Wisconsin DNR, as well as a husband and father.

www.jsonline.com

 

[HairyScandinavian]

Dammit

 

[Hunter26]

Dang, that is crazy. I guess if you had to go and it was already written that is probably one of the better ways to go.

 

[My Name]

Dang. After learning about these two unfortunate stories, I am going to be more conservative when storms come through. There was a time my son and I were headed down a ridge as a storm was coming in. I had my trekking poles strapped to my pack with the metal tip pointing up. I kept hearing a zst zst zst noise. I took my pack off and discovered the noise was coming from the tip of my trekking poles. When I held them handle side up there was nothing, but tip side up and I heard the zst zst zst again. We ran the rest of the way back to the rig. Scary stuff.

Wow that's scary.. you were almost a lightning rod!

 

[HairyScandinavian]

^I've heard that noise before. My middle son and I were deer hunting and using a flat bed center console pontoon barge I built from the ground up for hauling buggies and such to our camp. Deer hunting everybody else went home, son volunteered to stay with me to hunt the last evening and get home late. I arrowed a fat doe and he was still hunting so I thought if I could get that doe quartered up by sundown we could get out of there asap. As you can guess, I bumped her and she took off at mach speed. I backed out and waited for my son to meet me at the designated spot, we picked up the trail after dark and could see the flashes of a storm on the horizon. That doe ran until she ran out of blood and went 150 more yards in the thick west texas scrub brush. Flashes from that storm were brighter than my headlamp at that point, we wagon wheeled until we found her and I ripped the guts out and threw her in the lake and we jogged 3/4 mile back to the boat and brought it around and picked her up. It was drizzling and the storm was on top of us. That barge's top speed was about 32 mph SOG and we had it pegged, drizzle starting to get heavier and strong with came from behind and we were up to around 34 mph faster than it's ever gone before. We had some fishing rods and aluminum on the console and the buzzing started low and I thought the noise was coming from the engine until it got loud enough. The fishing rod tips were flopping a little in the wind and when they got close to eachother you could see static electricity. I was afraid to touch them but eventually grabbed them one by one and pulled them down and threw them on the deck but the static noise was still coming from somewhere around there. Pulled up to the dock and sent the boy to the truck because I didn't want him in the boat and the skies unleashed like you unplugged the drain plug on the clouds and then the lightning was past us and gone. I told the boy after we got out of there that it was a very bad example and we shouldn't have been in that situation, he said he knew and I was a dummy.

 

[3gunyotehtr]

One of the few things that make me nervous hunting. You just can't plan for it, no matter how experienced you are, it's just too random.

 

[Pharmseller]

When God wants you, He’s gonna take you.

 

[JimIsland]

Damn, that's awful. God bless their families.

 

[FLswamper]

Two Hunters and Their Dogs Were Killed by Lightning in Florida, Officials Say
The bodies of the two hunters and their two hunting dogs were found along a canal near Lake Okeechobee
By Dac Collins
Published Sep 26, 2025 11:45 AM EDT
https://www.outdoorlife.com/survival/florida-hunters-dogs-killed-by-lightning/

Two hunters and their hunting dogs were found dead near the water in Highlands County, Florida on Wednesday afternoon. An initial investigation showed that both men and their two dogs died from an apparent lightning strike sometime after 8 p.m. on Monday, according to a statement issued Thursday by the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office.

The two men, identified by the HCSO as 38-year-old Alexander Karl Getz and 31-year-old Peter James Kaminsky, were both from Miami. HCSO says officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission had been searching for the two men after they failed to return home from hunting. It’s unclear how long they had been missing for.

FWC officers found the bodies on a levee next to Canal C-41A in the area of Rucks Dairy Road, according to the statement from the sheriff’s office. It is one of many canals located off the Kissimmee River near where the river dumps into Lake Okeechobee.

HCSO says that while the initial investigation indicated a lightning strike, a medical examiner is still working to determine the official cause and time of death.

Although neither agency has provided additional details about the two men and their dogs, they were likely hunting or scouting for ducks along the canal when a thunderstorm rolled in. Florida’s early teal season opened Saturday and ran through Wednesday. Past weather data for Okeechobee shows that a heavy thunderstorm moved into the area sometime around 8 p.m. Monday, bringing rain and lightning that continued until after 10 pm.

“Our area gets more lightning than just about anywhere else in the country, especially in the summer. If you can hear thunder, that means lightning is close enough to strike, even if the sky doesn’t look too bad yet,” HCSO Sheriff Paul Blackman said Thursday. “It is essential to pay attention and plan ahead when storms approach.”

The timing of the fatal lightning strike in Florida is unsettling for some in the outdoors community, who are still mourning the loss of two young men who were killed by lightning while elk hunting in Colorado earlier this month. The coroner who examined the bodies in that case said the two men were not struck directly by lightning, but were close enough to the strike to be electrocuted nonetheless.

These deaths have also been tragic reminders of the danger of lighting, which is a risk for outdoorsmen all across the country — from the marshes to the mountains. In light of the incident in Colorado, search-and-rescue experts have re-shared advice about how to manage this risk if you are unable to seek shelter indoors or in a car with a hard roof.

“Don’t stand under trees, in open fields or go near bodies of water,” the HCSO advises, “as those spots are lightning magnets.”

 

[FLswamper]

I am outside all the time so I can't avoid lightning storms. I just accept the risk as a tradeoff for the fun I have and don't worry about it. I am pretty good at reading the skies and winds. Where I'm at, the off-shore winds collide with the prevailing winds and often stall or redirect storms. That gives me time to skirt around the thunderheads, especially when I am riding a MTB/DJBike, which is often.

By the odds, I occasionally get trapped outside by massive electrical storms that have me offering up Last Rites prayers for sure.

 

[sr20detrps13]

my condolences to their families. I just came back from a backcountry trip and we left the mountains early because of a thunderstorm.

 

[4090Sharps]

I’ve gotta imagine that climate change will transform these anecdotes of outdoorsmen losing their lives to lightning into a trend.