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Video shows dramatic rescue after couple struck by lightning
Newly released body camera video shows the frantic efforts by first responders to save a couple who were struck by lightning while walking along the West Orange Trail in Winter Garden.
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. - Newly released body camera video shows the frantic efforts by first responders to save a couple who were struck by lightning while walking along the West Orange Trail in Winter Garden.
Warning: The body camera video contains graphic images, some of which have been blurred.
Officers find couple critically injured
Local perspective:
The footage shows Winter Garden police officers arriving to find Aaron Walenga lying on the ground with a severe head injury, groaning in pain and struggling to respond.
Officer: "Okay, stay right there, buddy... Can you talk? ... Fire Department is coming, just keep talking to me."
Nearby, his wife, Clare Walenga, was also suffering from a head injury and was initially unresponsive.
A witness told officers she appeared critically injured immediately after the strike.
"She was blue," a Good Samaritan said.
Witnesses describe powerful lightning strike
Witnesses told police the lightning strike was so loud they initially believed it had hit a nearby fence.
The Walengas were two of three people struck by lightning in Central Florida within a week.
On Tuesday, 20-year-old Matthew Jenkins died after an apparent lightning strike while walking on a trail in Celebration. His death marked Florida's sixth lightning-related fatality of the year.
Florida remains a lightning hotspot
The National Weather Service says Florida is one of the nation's most lightning-prone states and warns that every thunderstorm poses a potentially deadly threat."We need to recognize lightning as a threat because it doesn't matter whether it's the first, the only or the last lightning strike. Every cloud-to-ground lightning strike is capable of injuring or killing someone," National Weather Service meteorologist Will Ulrich said.
The National Weather Service reminds residents that if they can hear thunder, they are close enough to be struck by lightning and should seek shelter indoors immediately.
The Source: This story was written based on information shared by the Winter Garden Police Department, the National Weather Service, and previous reporting by FOX 35 News.