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Lightning storm victim tells his story to KIRO 7

SHELTON, Wash. — As soon as rain started pouring from the sky in Shelton on Sept.  4,  22-year-old Brandon Springer decided he need to get a tarp up on the leaky roof of his travel trailer.

Springer was working on a ladder when the lightning hit.

"It was real bright I saw it right above where I was standing," Springer said he then felt a surge of electricity hit his body. "I saw the flash above me and felt the shock into my left shoulder hard enough to knock me from the ladder."

Springer became a victim of the same storm that also sent lightning bolts snapping one big fir tree into a family's yard and another tree crashing down onto apartment buildings nearby.  His heart was racing and he collapsed.

Paramedics were called by a neighbor who feared Springer had been hit directly by lightning, but they were able to determine Brandon did not suffer a direct hit.

Paramedics believe static electricity jumped from the lightning to Springer’s trailer. He told KIRO 7, "The frame of my trailer picked up the static electricity from it.

Springer got checked out at the hospital as well after the incident and says he was sore and had a severe headache for several days along with some memory issues involving events that happened around the time of the storm.

Still Springer says he feels very lucky, "I'm very fortunate it was not worse."