A fizz and smell of leather as a lightning bolt killed my friend
Hiker describes deadly ‘blue flash’
A TEACHER has described the moment his friend was killed by a lightning bolt – just minutes before another walker was also struck.
Bill Belcher was hiking in the Brecon Beacons when ‘there was a blue-white flash and a sound like a whip cracking’, an inquest heard yesterday.
The 46-year-old, from Surrey, said he was thrown backwards by the bolt which struck his friend, retired teacher Robin Meakings, 59.
‘Then there was a fizzing sound and a smell in the air like leather,’ he said. ‘Robin fell backwards on to his rucksack.’
The pair had been walking on the summit of the 2,600ft Cribyn peak when a freak thunderstorm rolled in on July 5. ‘I felt like I had been squashed and my legs were wobbly,’ Mr Belcher added. ‘I was shouting at Robin to wake up. I was in total shock.’
The pair were accompanied by 58year-old Nick Earl, also from Surrey, who blacked out and was left paralysed in one arm by the blast.
‘I felt on fire inside and out,’ Mr Earl said, adding that he was thrown 20ft into the air.
Mr Belcher tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Mr Meakings but could not find a pulse. Mr Meakings, from West Sussex, was airlifted to hospital by helicopter, but could not be revived.
The trio had been on an adventure holiday and had talked about going shopping that morning instead of climbing the mountain.
Mr Earl said they had paused to adjust a walking pole when the weather took a turn for the worse. Meanwhile Jeremy Prescott, 51, a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award leader, was on a neighbouring peak when he was struck just five minutes later, the inquest heard.
He was heading to meet a group of thirty children on an award scheme exercise with fellow leader Gaynor Hogart. Mrs Hogart, 52,
‘I felt on fire inside and out’
told the inquest in Brecon: ‘He was a little way in front of me and stepped on to the summit.
‘He was just watching me come up the last steps when it happened. There was a bright light behind him – it was like someone had pulled aside dark curtains and switched on the light.
‘Then he just fell forward … I knew he had been hit by lightning.’ Mrs Hogart and several Royal Marine cadets who were training nearby could not revive him.
The inquest heard both victims died from multiple burns.
Mr Prescott’s shirt had been melted with the force of the blast.
Powys coroner Andrew Barkley said: ‘The fact that there were two strikes makes these cases even more remarkable.’
He gave narrative verdicts on the deaths of Mr Meakings and Mr Prescott, who lived in Shropshire.
He added: ‘They were the result of unique and exceptional weather circumstances, which could not have been prevented.
‘There was no warning that it would happen.’
Between 50 and 100 people are stuck by lightning in Britain each year, though most survive.