Eleven soldiers hospitalised after lightning strikes
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A long gash in the bark of a pine tree, three broken field telephones and a bundle of burned cable were evidence of a bolt of lightning that hit the Niinisalo garrison during a thunder storm late Thursday night, sending eight men to hospital.
Another bolt of lighting hit three conscripts nearby as they were taking down a cover from a Pasi armoured personnel carrier.
The men were about to take a radar antenna down from the roof of the vehicle. However, the lightning did not damage the antenna.
The lightning strikes took place in Niinisalo ten minutes apart. The first bolt hit on the shore of Lake Valkjärvi at 22:40, and the second was at Pohjankangas 23 kilometres away. The 11 conscripts involved were sent to Satakunta Central Hospital, and all were released the next day.
The conscripts were taking part in an exercise involving 4,200 soldiers from the Western Military Districts
At the Pohjankangas end there was a communications group of 52 soldiers. On the shore of Valkjärvi there were 36 men in three tents.
The men were in their tents when the wind picked up and a heavy rain began to fall.
"There was so much water that the tent was flooded", said Tomi Monto.
Suddenly the telephone crackled. "It was as if someone had fired an assault rifle a metre away", said Tomi Ridankoski, who was also in the tent.
The scene was repeated in all three tents.
Monto was sitting a metre away from the telephone and his ears went numb.
The rain was pouring down, and the men began to dig ditches to get the water to flow out of the tent. "A captain and a first lieutenant came to see what had happened, and then we started walking to the infirmary."
Information about the destruction inflicted by lighting on Thursday night came first from Pohjankangas, where the men who were working on the armoured personnel carrier complained symptoms. "I just heard a single, sharp explosion", Lieutenant Vesa Reinikkala says.
Taking part in the exercise were six doctors and ten ambulances. Civilian ambulances were also called in, because it was not immediately clear how much medical transport capacity would be needed.
By 23:28 all of those who were injured had received treatment. According to the head physician, Heini Harve-Rytsälä, there were few visible injuries. "Small burns and bruises, but a powerful electric shock is always dangerous."
An electrocardiogram indicated that three had definitely suffered an electric shock, and the eight others were likely to have done so. They were sent to Pori for hospital treatment.
In addition to them, 22 others spent the night at a training area that had been converted into an infirmary.
Weather conditions in Niinisalo are notoriously variable, and forecasts are updated every four hours.
"At least at the quarters area I cannot think of anything that could have provoked the discharge", says the commander, Major General Kari Siiki.
The second place that was hit was on a hill. However, the radar antenna on top of the armoured personnel carrier had been in use since 1987 and had never been known to attract lightning. Even now it remained intact.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 18.6.2007 - TODAY |
 Eleven soldiers hospitalised after lightning strikes |
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