{"id":25672,"date":"2024-09-17T17:53:53","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T23:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-reportedly-struck-by-lightning-south-of-durango\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:24:15","slug":"man-reportedly-struck-by-lightning-south-of-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-reportedly-struck-by-lightning-south-of-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Man reportedly struck by lightning south of Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=b9dabc8a-0a65-43a0-9459-78059a9f7af4&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1542\" height=\"1083\" alt=\"A man was reportedly struck by lightning Tuesday morning south of Durango on the Florida Mesa in La Plata County. (Durango Herald file)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">A man was reportedly struck by lightning Tuesday morning south of Durango on the Florida Mesa in La Plata County. (Durango Herald file)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>A man was reportedly struck by lightning Tuesday south of Durango.<\/p>\n<p>The man, described as being in his 50s, was taken to Mercy Hospital in serious condition, said Randy Black, chief of the Durango Fire Protection District.<\/p>\n<p>The fire department was unable to identify the man, because federal laws prohibit medical providers that bill for services from releasing personally identifying information about their patients.<\/p>\n<p>The incident was reported at 10:37 a.m. on County Road 302, which is about 4 miles south of the Grandview interchange on the Florida Mesa in La Plata County.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"naviga-map\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?q=37.1718655%2C-107.8379202&amp;z=15&amp;output=embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Map\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>It was not immediately known if the man was directly struck by lightning. Lightning can strike people directly, hit the ground near somebody or strike something that conducts electricity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a number of things that can create that electricity back into that individual,\u201d Black said.<\/p>\n<p>Medical providers can usually see a fern-like pattern on the body that is indicative of whether a patient has been electrocuted or struck by lightning.<\/p>\n<p>The pattern is made when electricity passes through the body and damages blood vessels and nerve paths.<\/p>\n<p>Remnants from Tropical Storm Illeana moved into the region early Monday, bringing lightning and isolated downpours across much of Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n<p>Black said some roads have been washed out or covered by mud and debris. He said a DFPD ambulance became stuck in mud Monday night in a roundabout.<\/p>\n<p>He warned residents to take certain precautions during lightning storms, including staying indoors as much as possible and avoiding metal objects like poles and golf clubs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are powerful storms with a lot of water coming down,\u201d Black said.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-e6668192b19436d874aa48b00e0780ea\"><a href=\"mailto:shane@durangoherald.com\">shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patient taken to Mercy Hospital in serious condition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1480,28,1531,414],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-fire-protection-district","tag-headlines","tag-injury","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79045,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25672\/revisions\/79045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25672"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}