Lightning Explodes Tree, Narrowly Misses Baby

Lightning struck a tree on Little Moose Lane Wednesday morning, shooting shards of wood into the air and through the second-floor bedroom wall of one home where a baby was sleeping in its crib.

 “The tree literally exploded, sending large pieces of the trunk up to 100 feet away,” Public Works Department General Operations Superintendent Paul Risinger said in an e-mail.

The lightning strike occurred around 8:45 a.m. in the 1400 block of Little Moose Lane, according to Risinger. The force of the strike actually blew out the windows of the home next door and stabbed a 10-foot length of wood through the wall of the home, leaving a foot-long chunk sticking inside the baby’s room.

The powerful lightning bolt also blasted large chunks of the ash tree apart, stripping them of their bark and sending them flying in every direction. Some landed on nearby rooftops, others on lawns or in the lane itself, which was blocked by approximately half of the tree when public works crew arrived on scene fifteen minutes later. 

Outfitted in their wet weather gear as rain continued to fall, the workers cleared the debris with chainsaws and a wood chipper. Small branches of the tree, with their leaves still clinging to them, covered the area.

Despite the heavy rains, Risinger said that Northbrook did not experience severe flooding.