One child confirmed dead after lightning strikes two in Butler County
Published 6:43 pm Friday, March 30, 2012
A Greenville boy was killed and another was injured as the result of a lightning strike on Friday.
Aven Brett Schofield, 12, and a second boy were standing at the base of a tree in a wooded area off East Dogwood Trail when lightning struck the tree. Both boys were transported to Georgiana Hospital. Schofield was pronounced dead shortly after being transported to the hospital, while the second boy was listed in stable condition, according to Butler County Sheriff Kenny Harden. The boy has since been released from the hospital and is at home.
“We received a call at 4:20 p.m. in reference to people struck by lightning off East Dogwood Trail,” Harden said. “We got there and there were two young boys that had been in the wooded area when lightning struck a tree.”
The boys were about three miles north of Georgiana at the intersection of Hwy. 31 and Hwy. 106 when the lightning strike happened, according to Eric Ebensen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mobile.
“We had a thunderstorm move through the central part of the county and there was some lightning, not a whole lot, but there was some,” Ebensen said.
According to Harden, the lightning storm came upon the area quickly.
“It’s a terrible tragedy that happened,” Harden said. “You just don’t know the words to say about it.”