Lightning Hit Brooklyn Last Night, Caused One Fatality

Last night lightning hit a few Brooklyn locations, causing one fatality. The first was at Cobble Hill’s Christ Church, at 326 Clinton Street. Gothamist reports on the resulting death: “61-year-old Richard Schwartz, a prosecutor with the state attorney general’s office, was walking home near the Christ Church on Clinton Street in Cobble Hill at 8 p.m. when a bolt of lightning struck the scaffold. The lightning (and extreme wind) rattled the church so severely that it knocked scaffolding loose, sending it tumbling down on top of him.” City Room also reports a lightning fire at 665 New York Avenue. Two dozen firefighters were sent to the hospital for injuries but there were no fatalities. A Brownstoner commenter writes more details on that one: “According to a police report on that fire in Wingate/E Flatbush (just east of PLG), the entire top floor of the building was destroyed and the whole building has been declared unsafe and it is not sure when residents will be allowed to return. They’re currently staying at a Red Cross shelter established in PS 397 on Fenimore St. The fire was apparently caused by a lightning strike.” Any more storm-related news in your neighborhood?
Photo by klaus_kinski