Roy Sullivan was either the luckiest or the unluckiest man in the world, depending on how you look at it.
National Park ServiceRoy Sullivan obtain his chapeau , damaged by a lightning bolt .
Roy Sullivan was born in Greene County , Va. in 1912 . The fourth of eleven child , he grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains and was accustomed to the open air .
Education was n’t a precedence in his puerility , and he never graduate from gamy schooltime , but he put his noesis of the open to good use . He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and worked to build Shenandoah National Park where he was a Park Ranger from 1936 until his retreat .
National Park ServiceRoy Sullivan holding his hat, damaged by a lightning bolt.
Roy Sullivan, The One-Man Electric Factory
Although it can be a physically demanding job , Sullivan had a more physically tax vocation than most . Between 1942 and 1977 , he was run into by lightningseven times .
Though his job as a ballpark forest fire fighter put him at a somewhat eminent risk of being struck by lightning than the ordinary person , there is no explain the4.15 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 chancethat Sullivan would have been struck seven time , and still inhabit to tell about it .
Strike One!
The first smash occurred in 1942 when Sullivan was on duty in a flack tower in an overlook anticipate Henry Valentine Miller Head in Shenandoah National Park when a thunderstorm smasher . Lightning struck the ardor towboat repeatedly , setting it on fire . Sullivan tried to fly but was hit by lightning a few feet from the tower , burn a half - in strip in his right-hand leg and hitting his toe , lead a bally good deal and a jam unclouded through his shoe . He consider it his speculative lightning strike .
Strike Two!
Twenty - seven years after in July 1969 , Sullivan was again on obligation , this time driving on a mountain road when lightning struck through the open windowpane of the motortruck . His hair caught flame and he lose consciousness . The out - of - ascendance hand truck kept rolling and came to stop over near the edge of a drop-off .
Strike Three! You’re Ou-Still Alive?
The next year , Roy Sullivan was simply standing by his garden on his own property when lightning strike a nearby business leader transformer and then stick out to him , knocking him over and leaving slight burns on his left articulatio humeri .
Strikes Four And Five
His fourth and fifth strike also occur on duty .
In 1972 , Sullivan was work out in his commando station when another tempest struck , once again adjust his hair on ardour , forcing him to place damp towel on his head to wipe out the flames . In August 1973 , Sullivan was at body of work when he envision a tempest swarm approaching . He tried to outrun it , but a lightning bolt dispatch him . This incident led him to consider that there may be something about him that attract lightning , saying“I have never been a fearful man . But … when I hear it roar now , I find a little wobbly . ”
Strikes Six And Seven
It ’s not like Roy Sullivan ’s impression was unfounded , since he was struck doubly more . On June 5 , 1976 , Sullivan again tried to outrun a tempest swarm that seemed to be watch him , striking him again and offend his ankle joint .
His final lightning strike come on June 25 , 1977 , when he was fishing in a pool . The lightning chance on him , once again setting his hair on fire and burn his chest and stomach .
As if that were n’t enough , after he was rack up , abear came up to him and seek to slip the trout from off of his line , prompting Sullivan , already in pain , to take at the bear with a peg and force back it forth .
Roy Sullivan is either the luckiest or unluckiest man , depending on how you look at it . Despite being strike by lightning an betting odds - defy seven multiplication , he survive to be 72 . He croak from a ego - visit gunfire wound on Sept. 28 , 1983 as the final result of slump because of an unrequited love life affair
He remains in theGuinness Book of World Recordsas the individual affect by lightning the most time .
Next , check outjust what lightning strikes doto the human eubstance . Then , tick off out theseincredible photographs of lightning .
