Lightning struck and exploded the base of a tree, setting it on fire before streaking through the ground and damaging a sprinkler system at the Sault Ste. Marie Golf Club Sunday morning.
That morning, golf course staff member Andrew McKenney said he was sitting in the pro shop when “the biggest flash of lightning I’ve ever seen” hit.
“It turned the whole golf course white for that split second,” said McKenney, who could not see the tree from his location.
At around 8:30 a.m., Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services received three 911 calls — presumable from neighbours who had a clear sight line, said McKenney — saying a tree was struck by lightning and burning at the golf course, Platoon Chief Richard Pihlaja told SooToday.
The fire department arrived on scene but had to walk out onto the field in the rain to extinguish the fire with portable pump cans.
It took about 10 minutes to put out, said Pihlaja.
McKenney said that it looked like the lightning hit and exploded the base of the tree, knocking it over and setting it on fire, before shooting through the ground and hitting a nearby underground sprinkler.
The presumed path of the lighting created a streak of churned up dirt in the ground from the tree to the sprinkler.
On Monday morning the tree — which is estimated to have been about 40 feet tall, perhaps more — was laying in bush beside the driving range, split down the side, with pieces of bark and wood scattered about.
Laying on its side, the tree’s exposed insides were completly burned, but also hollow and full of grass and dirt.
McKenney figures the tree must have been hollow already and was once perhaps home to a porcupine or some other animal.
Now it’s just going to be firewood, he said.
