NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. --
A Volusia County firefighter suffered an indirect lightning strike on Sunday when he was knocked out of a chair when a bolt struck at or near a fire station.
Firefighter Mike Brasol was doing computer training at a fire station in New Smyrna Beach as a violent thunderstorm moved overhead. But it was after the sun came back and the training resumed that Brasol was thrown from the chair.
Brasol has been battling fire for 20 years and was back at his desk in Ormond Beach on Monday. He said the lightning bolt apparently hit a tower at the fire station and traveled through his computer.
"(It was) a huge fireball, and the percussion of it blew me completely out of the desk chair onto the floor," Brasol said.
Lightning often hits its mark during Florida's summer storms. In Brasol's case, the bolt blew out the computer, knocked out the radios and damaged the surge protector. Brasol said he was dazed, suffered a headache and ringing in his ears for a couple of hours.
"I felt like somebody hit me across the side of my face with a two-by-four," Brasol said.
Brasol wonders if he's a bit of a lightning magnet. He took another indirect lightning strike as a teenager.
"Lightning hit a tree outside the window I was looking out after a storm had passed, and the percussion blew me to the floor, and I woke up screaming," Brasol said.
Brasol was treated and released from a local hospital and is expected to fully recover.
Firefighter Suffers 2nd Lightning Strike
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