‘It sounded like a gunshot,’ witness says of lightning bolt hitting girl playing at Garfield Park Conservatory
It was sunny and hot and Daniel Jackson’s sorbet stand was slammed with customers Wednesday afternoon outside the Garfield Park Conservatory.
But about 2:30 p.m., the weather suddenly changed.
“It was very weird,” said Jordan Garrett, 17, a staffer serving the icy treats from a stand in the 300 block of North Central Park Avenue. “It got really dark and then it started raining, but just sprinkling.”
He and his boss, Jackson, owner of Destiny’s Ice Water Co., saw a few flickers of lightning and then it began pouring hard.
As they hustled to try to find shelter, they saw a group of kids still outside in the yard, or on the playfield of the conservatory grounds.
“I just turned around and watched the lightning bolt come down and I heard a very, very loud noise. It sounded like a gunshot,” said Garrett, a Senn High School student from the Rogers Park neighborhood. “Then I heard screaming.”
The deafening bang sounded like an explosion, said Jackson, 40, who saw the girl walk into the conservatory with a woman and another little girl. He got a quick look at the lighting bolt.
“It looked white, it wasn’t a zigzag — more of a white, straight line, a big line that came down,” Jackson said. “It came in a split second and went away.”
The pair figured it hit a tree but then heard the wail of an ambulance and paramedics rushing to the field and closing everything off.
The girl was lying in the field and staffers from the conservatory were doing CPR, Daniels and Garrett said.
Then paramedics took over, and about 30 or 40 minutes later, they brought the girl out on a stretcher. Paramedics were constantly talking to her, saying, “Honey, are you OK?” said Garrett.
The girl, whose age was unknown, was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt said.
The lightning bolt hit during a severe thunderstorm watch issued by the National Weather Service, which was in effect from 1:26 p.m. until 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Chicago Tribune’s Armando Sanchez contributed.
