Lightning hits ground near worker in area of Indiana city pool and fairgrounds

A person believed to be a worker at a city pool near the Fayette County Free Fair was nearly struck by lightning Thursday night that touched ground near where he was walking or standing, the county emergency manager said.

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“We believe we had a person at the fair be struck by lightning,” Fayette County Emergency Manager Wade Walling said.

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EMS took the person to a hospital, he said, noting that the person’s medical issues were consistent with being struck by lightning.

“He was carrying an aluminum umbrella pole from the park pool,” Walling said.

Lightning struck the ground near the border of the Roberts Park Family Aquatic Center and the Fayette County Free Fair about 7:38 p.m. and hit close enough to the person believed to be one of the lifeguards who was carrying a pole, Walling said. The aquatic center was being closed at the time of the storm and the poles were being put away.

“He wasn’t injured too terribly bad,” Walling said, noting that the charge was enough to make the person’s hair stand on end.

That was the one significant lightning strike that occurred during heavy rain as a shelf cloud rolled over the fairgrounds, Walling said.

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An officer with Fayette County Sheriff’s dispatch said that office could neither confirm nor deny the report, leaning on medical privacy law in offering no comment beyond that.

A person who answered a phone call to the county free fair said some fairgoers waited out the storm, but the midway at what’s billed as the state’s oldest free fair was shut down.

Thunderstorms packed with heavy rain and lightning began crossing through eastern Indiana and the Miami Valley about 6 p.m., causing power outages and prompting several reports of downed trees, wires and power poles.