Two campers at a Maple Ridge provincial park were struck by lightning Saturday night, during a severe storm that wreaked havoc across British Columbia.
Lightning struck a tree in the Golden Ears Provincial Park at about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, which then fell and disabled two vehicles before shocking two Burnaby residents.
"I've never seen an instance up at Golden Ears where people have been struck," parks operations manager Stu Burgess said Saturday.
"We've had numerous trees struck by lightning, but this is the first instance of heard of where anybody's been injured."
The 36-year-old male and 35-year-old female victims were taken to Ridge Meadows Hospital, but according to local RCMP their injuries do not appear life threatening.
Two children from Surrey, ages 8 and 7, were also injured in the strike, but were not taken to hospital.
More than 2,608 BC Hydro customers in the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast lost power on Saturday, and a number of forest fires in the interior were reported.
On Sunday, Environment Canada issued warnings to areas that may experience severe thunderstorms with large hail and damaging winds Sunday night. The following areas have been put on alert:
- Arrow Lakes
- Boundary
- Elk Valley
- Fraser Canyon
- Kinbasket
- Kootenay Lake
- Nicola
- Okanagan Valley
- Similkameen
- Shuswap
- Yoho Park
- West Columbia
- East Columbia
- West Kootenay
- East Kootenay
- North Thompson
- South Thompson
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Norma Reid
