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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Exploding Tree |
| 2006-08-17 |
| A lightning strike in the Florida city of Cape Coral caused a dead tree to explode in a massive blast that sent debris flying over a two-block radius and damaged 17 houses, the local fire department said Wednesday. "In 18 years with the fire department, I've never seen anything like that," Deputy Fire Chief Christopher Mikell told AFP. He said the 12-meter (40-foot) pine tree was hit by lightning during a thunderstorm on Monday and exploded "almost like a bomb." The tree had already been struck by lightning last year, apparently during a hurricane, causing decay that may have produced pockets of gases, said Mikell. One person was lightly injured and treated on the spot, and 17 houses were damaged, "two to the point of being uninhabitable," said Mikell. "Sections of the tree were found as far as 500 feet (150 meters) away. ... There was damage within two blocks of the location," he said. Lightning kills more people in Florida than any other US state, with 85 deaths recorded in the 1995-2004 period. "We see a lot of lightning damage. That's not unusual," said Mikell. "But I've never seen a blast effect like this." |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #19 And I thought I'd seen some spectacular damage from lightning strikes.... |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-08-17 20:22 |
| #18 Seriously, that was a Steam Explosion, I happened to see the same thing once many years ago. I was standing inside a friend's garage when lightning hit a huge old oak across the street, (100 feet or so away, kitty-corner) I happened to be looking exactly that way when it hit, it blew wood, dirt and bark all over the intersection, me and my friend too (Maybe 200 feet area) and eventualy killed the tree. After it quit raining I went over to check it out. It seems that how a tree grows a single root feeds a single branch, while it looked at first that the lightning had circled the trunk, really the tree was twisted as it grew.And the lightning followed the same path to ground. Where the bark was blasted off was a straight line from the struck branch to the root. (Even though it 3/4 circled the tree trunk) Bark missing and wood smoking all the way from branch tip to root, blew a good hunk of soil out of the ground (About two good shovel's worth) at the root's end as well. The tree died, but it was a long time before it was completely dead, the exposed path was dead instantly, but the rest of the tree succumbed to rot starting from the blasted and dead strip. The city finaly cut it down, (City Property) half rotted and half alive, but dangerous, dropping huge branches in the street from time to time. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2006-08-17 20:17 |
| #17 You're not Punny. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2006-08-17 19:49 |
| #16 After being hit by lightning only a sap would expect the tree to just pitch over. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-17 19:36 |
| #15 Islamic Pine? Did it scream, "Allah Akhbar!", before it exploded... |
| Posted by: BigEd 2006-08-17 18:19 |
| #14 Was there a JOOOOOOOOOO hiding behind it? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-08-17 15:35 |
| #13 Nut before you, GORT. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-08-17 15:30 |
| #12 BA, Xbalanke - you both need to leaf. |
| Posted by: GORT 2006-08-17 15:17 |
| #11 I'm surprised the explosion branched out that far. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-08-17 14:14 |
| #10 We need to look at root causes. |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2006-08-17 12:29 |
| #9 "Trees...why do they hate us?" Those who walk about on 2 legs, chopping and burning ... The Valar willing, we Ents will revenge every tree whose life you have cut short! |
| Posted by: Fangorn 2006-08-17 11:00 |
| #8 Don't you mean Shrub? |
| Posted by: ed 2006-08-17 07:09 |
| #7 LOL, SteveS. |
| Posted by: flyover 2006-08-17 07:04 |
| #6 I blame the bush. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2006-08-17 04:14 |
| #5 It's because the tree was Oppressed and couldn't bear the Humiliation anymore, so it fought back with The Only Weapon Of The Weak. None of this would have happened if the USA had a more balanced middle-east foreign policy. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-08-17 03:24 |
| #4 I believe the tree is of the family Paleosus Pinus. |
| Posted by: flyover 2006-08-17 02:23 |
| #3 Exploding Tree = Pinaceae SplodyDopa |
| Posted by: RD 2006-08-17 02:20 |
| #2 Global warming |
| Posted by: newc 2006-08-17 01:52 |
| #1 Someone has to say it" "Trees...why do they hate us?" |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2006-08-17 00:24 |