A Lake Isabella boy was caught in the middle of stormy weather. The boy says a lightning bolt struck him.
Tyler Simmons, 13, says he was riding his bike home when all of a sudden he heard a loud noise. He says he didn't see the lightning, but he felt it.
“I had to run home real quick. I didn't even make it home and it struck me. It just tickled… it tickled me a lot and then I flew off my bike,” Simmons explained.
Simmons was released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon. He says he did suffer any burns from the lightning, just cuts and bruises from being thrown off the bike.
His mother describes the moments after a neighbor called and said lightning hit her son.
“I was very scared. I didn't know if it had actually hit him or not… just getting that phone call that he had been struck by lightning,” Tami Simmons said.
The neighbor who called was standing outside and watched as lightning struck the boy.
“We've never seen anything like it. It was big. It was loud. It was scary for me and it was like living in it,” neighbor Marci Bushling said.
Neighbors say after falling off his bike, the boy took off running and looking for help. While he did not suffer major injures, Tyler says he feared for his life.
“It was scary. I thought I was gonna die,” the boy said.
A storm wept through Lake Isabella bringing thunder, rain, and wind. Many residents say they spent the morning without power but never expected anything like this.
“You hear of things like this happening but you never think they are going to happen to you,” the boy’s mother said.
Now that it has, Simmons says she is just grateful her son is back home and safe.
