ALBANY, N.Y. -- Lightning tore through a tree and struck ten people standing under it Sunday during a thunderstorm in Boston. They were watching a soccer game in the park when the storm broke out.
That's when their shelter turned into a conductor that caused injuries bad enough to keep five people in intensive care and baffle emergency responders young and old.
"This is my first month on the job and it's not something that's going to leave my head anytime soon," said a rookie first responder.
According to the National Weather Service, the odds of getting struck by lightning are 1/700,000 in a given year. But as Ken Jubie reports, last weekend lightning struck people in the northeast twice, defying the odds and sparking thoughts of storm safety.
"We're trained on mass casualty incidents but we don't train for an incident I've never seen in 35 years," said another.
Lightning also hit an Averill Park teen and one of her family members last Friday night at the Saratoga County Fair.
Kelly Niel spent the weekend in the ICU at Albany Med before going home Sunday night.
The National Weather Service reports 340 injuries from lightning a year.
That's 6.5 per week, but last weekend the northeast alone nearly doubled that stat, parking safety reminders for people enjoying the outdoors.
"I've been close a few times. Close enough where the hair on my legs would go right on end. So that was when I was younger and sillier. Now I get right off the course," said golfer Tim Lee.
The pros at Orchard Creek do their best to make sure Lee doesn't become the 1 in 700,000 to be struck by lightning, so they're constantly checking the radar.
"If a storm gets anywhere near that location we'll go out, we'll blow the horns and we'll bring everyone in and just delay play for the time being," said Orchard Creek Assistant Golf Pro Anthony Ondriska.
They're not taking any chances at the Colonie Town Pool either. The minute they hear thunder roll, they're clearing the pool.
"We really pull the people early usually because obviously they're in water which is a great conductor and we have a lot of metal around us. High metal light polls and all our guards are sitting on metal chairs," said Colonie Town Pool Manager Bob Foggo.
He said they wait about a half hour after the storm blows over before letting people start splashing again, hoping to cut down on the odds of someone from Colonie becoming a National Weather Service statistic.