US Park Ranger Roy C. Sullivan from Virginia holds the record
for the person most times struck by lightning - and living to tell
the tale. Between 1942 and 1983, Roy has the dubious distinction of
being struck by lightning seven times. He was known as the Human
Lightning Rod.
The first lightning strike in 1942 happened as he was working up in
a lookout tower and the lighting bolt shot through his leg and
knocked his big toenail off.
In 1969 while he was driving along a mountain road a second strike
burned off his eyebrows and knocked him unconscious. Another strike
just a year later, while he was walking across his yard to get the
mail, left his shoulder seared.
He was standing in the office at the ranger station in 1972 when
lightning set his hair on fire and Roy had to throw a bucket of
water over his head to cool off. A year later, after his hair had
grown back, a lightning bolt ripped through his hat and hit him on
the head, setting his hair on fire again. It threw him out of his
truck, knocked his left shoe off and seared his legs. A sixth
strike hit him in 1976 while he was checking on a campsite,
injuring his ankle.
The last lightning bolt to hit Roy in 1977 happened while he was
fishing. It sent him to hospital with chest and stomach
burns.
Roy Sullivan was never killed by lighting - he committed suicide
while in his 70's in 1983 reportedly distraught over the loss of a
woman.
