Farmer and Eketahuna Community Board chairman Charlie Death, holding the largest piece of fence post which was thrown 10 metres by a lightning strike last Monday. The steel standard pictured was put in as a repair. PHOTOS/BUSH TELEGRAPH
STEVE CARLE
A solitary lightning strike brought down a fence on Charlie Death’s Nireaha farm, 10km west of Eketahuna last week.
“The lightning lit up the inside of the house, then it went ‘boom’,” the Eketahuna identity said of the 7.30am strike last Monday. “Wow, the power of Mother Nature.”
Heading up the farm track about 90 minutes later, Death noticed fence wires on the ground and thought stock must have got out.
“Then I saw this post which had exploded,” he said. “Bits and pieces of it went in directions either side of the race. I fixed it up with my son and found the electric fence cable had burst.
“Just imagine the power of that lightning.
“I go up that race three or four times every day. I’m lucky I wasn’t struck.
“The largest piece was thrown 10 metres.”
